


The Devil on my Shoulder

by LazyLikeaZombie



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Alcohol, Alternate Universe, Amélie is veeery rich, College AU, Demon!Mercy, F/F, France (Country), Ghostrider Mention, Hobby Ghost Hunting, I aged them all down and closer together, I'm sorry but Fareeha's just so gay, I'm weak okay, Lúcio has bad luck in UNO, Road Trip, Slow Burn, Weed mention, WidowTracer mentions, okay maybe not as slow of a burn as I thought, the M rating is just to be save
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-08-02
Updated: 2017-08-30
Packaged: 2018-07-28 23:35:51
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 11
Words: 38,372
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7661581
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LazyLikeaZombie/pseuds/LazyLikeaZombie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Fareeha used to think a hangover was worse enough to wake up with, that view changes one Saturday morning when she wakes up to find a beautiful stranger in her living room.</p><p>College Au & Demon!Mercy</p><p>Edit: Now with added road trip factor.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Fareeha was woken by the sound of her television droning into her room from the living room. Slowly and painfully she tried to open her eyes, just to immediately shut them again, as the morning sun felt like somebody punched her in the face, actually even with her eyes closed she still felt like somebody had punched her in the face. The right half of her face burned painfully and felt numb at the same time.

Coming to the conclusion that she had a terrible hangover and just had slept on her hand or something, she promised herself that she would let Lena and Zaryanova pay dearly for getting her to drink far more at the party yesterday than she intended to in the first place. Blinking heavily against the offending rays of sunshine that made their way past the blinds on her window she tried to focus her vision on the clock on the nightstand.

The digital digits indicated that it was already 1:17 PM which meant that she missed her early morning 10 kilometer run, which was usually followed by two hours at the gym and a healthy breakfast at 9 AM. Realizing that she was in no shape to actually get any of those tasks done today without immediately throwing up on the floor or whoever's closest, she turned around to lie on the side of her face that didn't hurt and decided to just accept her fate and go back to sleep, trying to cure her headache and nausea that way.

But just as she had closed her eyes and tried to force sleep to come back to her she remembered why she woke up in the first place: the running television in the living room.

"Lena probably left it on yesterday before we went to the party and I was too drunk too notice it when I came home", she thought to herself. In her head she cursed the little Brit for talking her into pre-gaming at her place. Again.

"She gets me every time to agree to her." Fareeha still made no indication of getting out of bed.

As the only one of her friends group who lived off campus it was obvious that they would always pre-game at her place as there was no campus security to bust them and the only other people who lived in the building were a weird Australian and his big friend from New Zealand, and those two never complained about anything loud, they rather celebrated it themselves with more noise.

She realized she still had not come any closer to actually getting up and turning the TV off.

"Come on, Fareeha. You can do it!" She braced herself. With every last bit of energy she had, which wasn't a terrible lot, she flipped the blankets of her body, swung her legs over the edge of the bed, and got up.

"Now that wasn't too bad was i-" She felt the contents of her stomach rising upwards towards her mouth even before her brain registered the overwhelming attack off nausea. Every kind of tiredness forgotten, she stormed out of her room into the living room, past her coffee table filled with empty beer and liquor bottles, past her sofa filled with empty chips packs and more empty alcohol containers, past her television that was showing some kind of nature documentary, past the incredible good-looking woman with horns wearing a stylish red outfit, past her bathroom door, and finally to the toilet, where her stomach told its very own tale of last night, and it seemed as if the white porcelain was listening intently. It wasn't a pretty sight nor did it smell all that good.

After regretting every single drop of alcohol she ever drank in her entire life for the better part of fifteen minutes, something dawned on her, a thought she did not like one last bit. On her panicked sprint to the toilet she saw something in the living room that did not belong there and made her stomach churn: all the garbage from yesterday was still lying around! Cleaning that up would take forever!

"Great! There goes my Saturday." She muttered to herself as she shakily stood up and stepped in front of the sink, looking at herself in her bathroom mirror.

She looked like shit.

"I look like shit." Fareeha started to take inventory of herself. Her normally clean and well kept black hair was a total and utter mess, her dark eyes were completely bloodshot, she had deep bags under her eyes, but what shocked her the most was the reason why her face felt like she slept on hot coals. Right there under her right eye was a brand-new and still sore tattoo of the Egyptian eye of Horus.

"No! No, no, no! Nononononono! Please don't be real, please don't be real!" she started stammering and turned on the faucet. Grabbing a handful of water she wanted to try rubbing it off, but as soon as her hand made contact with the black ink on her face she howled in pain. Okay, it was real.

"Fuck!" She stumbled backwards out of the bathroom, and straight into something soft.

"Hey, watch it!" a voice behind Fareeha exclaimed, "I just got this suit and do not wish to have any of your vomit on it."

Fareeha froze.

There was somebody in her apartment! A million questions shot through her head but her body acted completely on instinct, all the long years of martial arts training with her mother came to her as a reflex. She turned around and grabbed for the intruder, and immediately stormed into the bathroom again as she was not prepared for the flash of nausea that returned with the quick turn.

"It's amazing how pathetic that was," the stranger stated in a monotonous female voice.

"I'm calling the poli-!" Fareeha was interrupted by another burst of hurling which went straight into a fit of coughing.

"You can try, but I doubt that they speak vomit", the woman calmly stated.

"Fuck you!"

"Great, now you're resulting to insults. You're not the best host ar-", she was interrupted by more violent vomiting sounds from the bathroom.

"I can't believe how rude you are", the woman let out an exasperated sigh and stepped into the bathroom, towards Fareeha who was currently clinging onto the toilet bowl like her dear life depended on it, "You could at least let me finish."

With her last words the woman put her hand on Fareeha's shoulder. As soon as contact was made a golden glow filled the bathroom and all the huffing and spitting sounds ceased to continue.

Fareeha felt better, actually she felt great, she felt as if she could run a marathon in record time. Her head and face no longer hurt, and all nausea was as if it never existed.

As she got up the other woman looked at her with an annoyed face.

"You done?' she asked.

Fareeha clocked her right on the nose.

The woman fell down due to what seemed more like surprise and not the sudden hit in her face. She landed flat on her back with a quizzed look resting on her facial features.

"That isn't the usual reaction I get," she started to get up, "that's probably what I get for trying to strike a deal with a college student."

Now that the stranger was back on her feet Fareeha was finally able to get a good look at her. She was a bit smaller than her, probably 5”7’, had black hair which was bound into a pony tail, striking violet eyes, a strongly structured face, and her most prominent features, two black horns growing out of her forehead. She wore a red three-piece suit over a black button up shirt and a red tie. She would have looked stunningly beautiful if not for the beforehand mentioned horns.

"Who are you? What do you want? Wait don't answer that, I actually don't care. I'm gonna call the police." Fareeha was agitated and getting uneasy at the sight in front of her. She had her suspicions about what she was seeing but hoped for her own sanity that she was simply having some kind of rest alcohol induced hallucination.

"Please love, there is no need for that," the horned woman spoke as she took a step forward. Fareeha instinctively moved backwards, just to feel her toilet against the back of her leg, indicating that she had nowhere to go. The woman in front of her continued to talk in an almost endearing tone.

"My name is Mercy. I am here to make a deal with you. Why don't we talk somewhere else than a bathroom that smells like vomit; the living room perhaps?" She smiled at her last sentence, turned around, and began making her way towards the sofa.

Fareeha hesitated to follow but as she had realized that she left her phone on her nightstand and her bathroom really smelled awful, she flushed and closed the door behind her. Stepping into the living room she noticed that Mercy had already "cleaned up" the sofa, as she had just piled everything that formerly occupied the cushions onto the coffee table, resulting in a dangerously unstable looking pile of cans and bottles. When Mercy saw that Fareeha was approaching her, she patted the seat next to her and expectantly looked at her. Fareeha sat down.

"Fantastic. Now that you calmed down we can have a calm conversation like two reasonable human beings."

"But you're not, are you?"

"Pardon me?"

"A human being, I mean. With your horns and that light and all that shit."

Mercy grinned, "You're clever. I like that. No I'm not human, you’re right. I am what humans would classify as a demon." At those words a shiver went down Fareeha's spine. Mercy must have noticed it because as she continued to speak she made sure to seem as non-threatening as possible.

"Don't worry I don't wish you any harm. Quite the opposite in fact! I wish to make you an offer, a deal so to say, that could improve your life immensely."

Fareeha scooted even further back on the sofa than she already had.

"Oh no. No chance. I've seen both Ghostrider movies and some episodes of Supernatural, I know what happens if you make a deal with a demon. You won't get my soul!" she said, quietly thanking Lena who forced her to watch those pieces of media over the course of the last year, as she had said that Fareeha had a severe case of “Pop Culture Malnourishment”.

Mercy pouted, "Come on, just one little deal! I can't leave until I have a contract. I doesn’t even hurt.”

“And what exactly do you get in return? You can’t seriously think I’m just gonna believe you that you fulfill me a wish and get nothing in return, so what is it? My soul? Do I get another ten years and then you gonna drag me down to hell? What do you get out of this?” The distrust was clear on Fareeha’s voice.

Mercy suddenly looked like she was caught stealing out of the cookie jar, she shifted an uncomfortably in her seat.

“It’s not like your soul is that important, you would barely notice that it’s gone.” She said meekly.

At those words anger boiled up in Fareeha but she stayed calm, thanks again to the many years of training her mother gave her, “Leave. Now. Go back to wherever you came from and don’t you dare to come back!”

“Don’t you understand I can’t leave until-. “ It seemed like it was a common theme that Mercy got interrupted because in that moment the doorbell rang.

Fareeha and Mercy shared a panicked look.

“Wakey wakey eggs and bakey Pharah”, a British voice sounded from outside. It was Lena. “Look luv, I’m sorry we filled you up a tad much yesterday, so I brought you breakfast and coffee to make up for it. Please don’t be mad.”

Fareeha stood up and looked at Mercy, “I don’t care how you do it but she can’t see you. So when I come back here you better be gone.”

“And how am I supposed to do that? I told you I can’t leave!” One could see that Mercy started to get anxious.

Fareeha was getting annoyed. “Then use your demon magic to turn yourself invisible or some shit like that. As I already said: I don’t care.” With those words she turned her back on the demon and walked to her front door where the Brit seemed to be trying to play “Danger Zone” on her doorbell. Obviously it didn’t work and was annoying as hell.

When Fareeha opened the door Lena immediately stopped violating the poor doorbell and held a plastic bag filled to the brim with breakfast food out in front of her.

“Sorry”, she said with a genuine smile, “We didn’t mean to let it get that much out of hand yesterday, we just thought that after we worked so hard during the last few weeks we all deserved to have some fun and, you know, relax.”

Fareeha had to chuckle at that. Whatever grudge she had against the woman at her door a few minutes ago was gone, she just couldn’t stay angry with her friend.

“Hey, it’s okay. I get it, and I admit that I’ve been a bit tense lately but I would’ve been at least nice to remember anything from the party and not just wake up with my worst hangover yet.”

Lena grinned widely.

“Ha, I knew you wouldn’t be mad,” she quickly snuck past Fareeha into the woman’s apartment, “Now come on, let’s eat! I don’t know about you, but I’m starving.”

Once again panic grabbed Fareeha. She couldn’t let Lena see Mercy who was undoubtedly still in the living room. Quickly shutting the door she followed Lena, just to find her sitting on the sofa, already unpacking the delicious smelling food, with no sign of Mercy around. Fareeha never felt so relieved before in her life. She sat down next to the Brit and started to look through the food she brought in when the woman next to her started to speak.

“You seriously need to clean this place up Pharah, I mean seriously look at this,” Lena gestured with a plastic fork towards the pile on the coffee table.

“Well, if I remember correctly you didn’t play an unimportant part in the current state of my apartment, so why don’t you help me with cleaning it up?” Fareeha stated as she took a swig of coffee from Lena’s thermos.

“On second thought I think this looks not all that bad, gives it a nice lived-in feel, does it not?”

“No. You will help me clean this up.”

Lena sighed, “Figured.”

The two women continued to eat in silence for a while, when there suddenly was a crashing sound from the bed room, followed by a pained moan.

The Brit immediately shot Fareeha a sly grin, “Don’t tell me you didn’t leave the party alone, I knew you were a real player! The ladies just can’t resist the good ol’ Amari charm, can they?” Lena immediately sprung up and made her way towards the bedroom door. “Why don’t we ask your guest if she wants to eat something too? I mean something that isn’t Egyptian, tall, dark and handsome, eh?” She winked at Fareeha and grabbed for the doorknob.

Fareeha panicked. She sprung up and crossed the room in a few large strides, but she couldn’t get there in time. Instead she collided with her friend and they both stumbled into the bedroom, landing in a heap on the floor.

As they both started to get up Fareeha braced for whatever was to follow, when nothing came she dared to look up, only to find Lena standing there staring with her mouth wide open. Following Lena’s gaze she almost swallowed her tongue when she saw what it was that made the talkative Brit shut up so efficiently.

It was Mercy, but she didn’t look anything like she did when Fareeha saw her the first time. Her black hair now was a bright blonde, her violeteyes now a clear baby blue, and her horns were all but gone. Her choice of clothing had also changed as it seemed like she switched her suit for one of Fareeha’s soccer jersey and some boy shorts. At the moment she was sitting on the floor with a pained look on her face and rubbing her butt.

“Oh, I’m so sorry for having disturbed you,” Fareeha noticed that there now was a slight accent in Mercy’s voice, “I’ll be making myself on my way now, to not interrupt you any further.”

Lena was immediately by her side when Mercy started to get up, “No, don’t you worry about that. Why don’t you join us for breakfast?”

“That would be lovely.” Mercy gave Lena a smile so sweet that Fareeha felt like she got diabetes by just looking.

Lena didn’t seem to notice the sour look Fareeha shot Mercy and all but ignored her when she led the now blonde out of the bedroom. Fareeha had nothing left but to follow the back to the sofa.

“Are you also a student at the University because I think I would have noticed if there was an angel among us?” Now Lena was flirting, Fareeha knew that all of her chances of sweeping this under the rug were gone out of the window, but she also saw that Mercy was hesitating, obviously failing to think of a lie.

“She’s an exchange student!” Lena and Mercy both turned their heads towards Fareeha. Luckily Mercy got where the other woman was going at and quickly returned to her wits.

“Ja, I mean, yes that is correct. I am an exchange student from, eh, Zurich?” It came out more like a question and Fareeha prayed that Lena would take the bait. She was in luck.

A wide grin appeared on Lena’s face, “That’s awesome! I’m Lena, some people might call me Tracer, but that is a long story. You already seem to have become well acquainted”, she wiggled her eyebrows,” with my friend Fareeha or how we call her sometimes, Pharah, which also is a long story.” Now she turned to Fareeha who was still standing between the sofa and her bedroom door, contemplating if the fall from her window could kill her if she jumped right now. “You should bring her with you the next time we go out, it’ll will be fun!”

Fareeha looked coldly between Lena and Mercy, “Sure. Fun.”

“Don’t take it like that, she can be a real madwoman once you get to know her more closely, although you two seem two know each already as close as possible.” Sometimes Fareeha wished she could wipe that shit-eating grin off of Tracer’s face. “What’s your name by the way? I’m sorry I didn’t ask earlier.”

Mercy was caught off guard, her eyes quickly darting around the room for clues, after a few nerve racking seconds she finally answered, “Remember how you said you would have noticed an angel amongst you, I found that really funny as my name actually is Angel…a. Angela! Yes that’s my name.”

“Well then nice to meet you Angela. I’m looking forward to-“, the talkative woman was interrupted by her phone. Quickly she snatched it from her pocket, read the text she got, typed a response, put it back in her jeans, and got up, all in a record time. “Sorry, but I gotta jet, something came up.” She turned to Fareeha “Zarya asks if you want to come out again tonight, she apparently got invited to another party by that Mei-Ling girl from Climate Studies, but if you’d rather stay in,” a short glance towards _Angela_ , “I totally get that.”

“I don’t think-“, Fareeha started.

“Count us in!” Angela chimed in.

“Awesome! We meet at 8 at Zarya’s and my place. See ya then!” She quickly hugged Fareeha and was out of the door before anybody could say anything else.

Mercy grinned, “Looks like we’re going to a party.”

Fareeha wished she had stayed in bed.

“Fuck.”

 

 

 


	2. Chapter 2

After Lena had left the only sound that remained in the apartment was the television, which was still happily showing nature documentaries and didn’t care at all for the terrible feeling that was settling in Fareeha’s stomach.

Mercy - no, Fareeha decided she wouldn’t continue calling her that as that was just ridiculous - Angela looked at her with a sheepish grin, “I don’t actually have anything to wear to a party. You wouldn’t mind taking me shopping, would you?”

“You should have thought about that before you decided to break into my apartment and ruin my life.” Fareeha said coldly and marched into the kitchen, grabbing as many dirty dishes as she could carry on her way there.

Angela got also got up and followed her into the kitchen, “Come on don’t be like that.” She pouted, “I wouldn’t say I ruined your life, more like the opposite. Your friend, for example, thinks you have made quite the catch last night.” She smirked.

Fareeha continued her quest to get her living space back into an actual living quality and didn’t even look at the blonde when she talked to her, “Well she didn’t see you with your horns and shit.”

“Might I remind you that you didn’t see my _‘and shit’_ either.”

“Wait, there’s even more to it? And here I thought a red suit and horns didn’t scream evil enough already.” She rolled with her eyes as she switched her coffee machine on.

One could easily see that that hit a nerve. Angela straightened to her full height, which was still shorter than Fareeha, and continued talking in a slightly more arrogant tone, “I’ll have you know that I also have wings and a tail.”

Fareeha only shortly looked up from her current activity, pouring the rests of a vodka bottle from yesterday into her coffee, to give the demon an answer, “At least you won’t be needing a Halloween costume then.”

That got Angela furious. Never, in all of her years as a servant of the underworld, was she treated with such disrespect and she sure as hell would not stand for such a behavior. But just when she was about to say something Faheera got done slamming her coffee/vodka/whatever-other-hard-liquor mix and walked straight past her out the kitchen, ignoring her completely.

“I’m out of milk and some other essentials,” those being ramen and alcohol, but Angela didn’t need to know that, “There’s a second-hand shop on the same street as the supermarket, if you want to come.”

Angela slumped her shoulders in defeat, “Can I borrow pants and a pair of shoes?”

Fareeha’s voice was now coming from her bedroom as she was making herself ready to leave, “For the time being, yes you can, but you will have to make do with sports shorts and flip flops!”

Angela’s shoulders slumped even further and she sighed quietly in defeat, “Thank you.”

 

It was already 2:30 PM when the two women left the apartment building and started walking down the street. Fareeha had donned a white tank top with one of her mom’s old military shirts over it, the sleeves rolled up, blue jeans, and her old black converse, while Angela still wore the other woman’s soccer jersey, black sport shorts and neon pink flip flops. The blonde was visible uncomfortable in her clothes.

“Why didn’t you wear your suit?” Fareeha asked as she fished her aviators out of her shirts front pocket.

“It disappeared when I used, and I quote, my demon magic to turn myself invisible or some shit like that.”

“You turned your suit invisible?” Fareeha looked at the woman walking right next to her, her now blonde hair still in a ponytail but by far not as tidy looking as before, her posture also wasn’t as imposing as the first time they saw, she looked all in all tired, and now, also annoyed.

“No, I did NOT turn my suit invisible, that’s just ridiculous. It just was far too obvious that it didn’t belong in the apartment of some low level…” She rudely gestured with her hands in Fareeha’s direction. “What do you do anyway?”

Fareeha should have been offended but at the moment she was far too distracted by the mental image of Angela snipping with her fingers and her clothes disappearing into thin air whilst slowly dancing to music. She was ripped out of her fantasies and reminded of who it actually was she was having those fantasies of when Angela flicked her index finger against her temple.

“Hey, watch it!” The taller woman was now rubbing the spot where Angela hit her.

“If I ask you what you do for a living, you better answer. Understood?”

“No need to be so rude about it.” Fareeha flicked Angela back. “I am currently a student and visit the Watchpoint University of Gibraltar.”

“That’s it? No work or anything?”

“Yeah pretty much. I can pay the apartment and all other fees with the money my mom left me, and I still have enough money left to treat myself then and when.”

Angela hung her head, “Great, I landed with somebody who still needs her mom to pay her bills.”

Suddenly Fareeha grabbed Angela by the shoulders and shoved her into the next wall. She looked far more threatening than just some seconds ago as she was now looming over the demon with an angry glare and build up to her full size, “Listen here closely, as I’m only going to say it once: You leave my mother out of this. Are we clear? You will never mention her again!” Mercy had lost all of her teasing demeanor instantly and was now looking like a kicked puppy. “By the way we’re here.”

 

The town where Fareeha studied had been originally founded in the 16th century but had only recently experienced an immense growth when the Watchpoint University of Gibraltar decided to settle here in 1910. Since then a lot of people from all over the world, from the US over Brazil to China and Australia, had begun to settle here, open business, and start a life. So it came that even in a small town in Spain, not on but close to Gibraltar, one could easily get around by speaking only English, much to the liking of Fareeha, who’s Spanish skills were, even after several years of training, still quite lacking.

Right now Angela and she were standing in front of a small second-hand shop owned by a bald Nepali hippie, who always tried to give his customers a live lesson with every purchase.

When Angela tried to give Fareeha a questioning look, she got 30€ stuffed in her hands, “Here take this and buy yourself some clothes.”

Angela could still tell that the black haired woman was still angry so she just looked down and said a meek thank you. Fareeha turned her back on the demon and continued to walk towards the local supermarket a few houses further down the street. Only after Angela saw her reluctant host enter the supermarket she worked up the courage to enter the second-hand shop.

“Greetings”, the bald man behind the register said with a way too friendly smile. “How can I help you on this beautiful day?”

Mercy looked around the little store with interest. Due to the fact that this town had a lot of young residents who visited the university fid the shop carry a lot of thing in her size, many of which she also wouldn’t mind be seen wearing.

“I’m obviously here to buy fruits,” she answered sarcasm thick in her voice, starting to peruse the clothing stands.

The man, looking like he was in his early 20s, still smiled, “Then I can assure you that you’re in luck. We just finished a new harvest yesterday. You will certainly be pleased with the quality.”

Mercy facepalmed. This would take some time.

 

 

When Fareeha left the supermarket Angela was already waiting on her. Two recycled plastic bags in one hand and a half-eaten apple in the other. Fareeha didn’t say a word as she passed by the blonde, starting to make her way homewards.

“Look, I’m sorry.”

That stopped her dead in her tracks.

“What was that?” She turned around looking at Angela.

“I said I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to insult you… well I did, but not that severely. It was just meant to be a harmless quip, not-“ She stopped herself in her rambling. “Please let me take you on an ice or something to make up for that.”

“Alright.” Angela didn’t expect that.

She stood there a bit dumbfounded, “I didn’t think I’d get this far.”

Fareeha sighed. “Follow me."

 

The place, where Fareeha led Angela to, was located on the town’s seaside promenade and run by an old local who spoke only sparse English. After each woman got her cone and Angela had paid the kind man his money (much to Fareeha’s surprise) they chose to sit on one of the benches by the sand, and eat their ice cream in comfortable silence. It was a nice late spring/early summer Saturday afternoon which meant that there were already a bunch of people at the beach and in the water. While they were surveying the scene Angela turned to Fareeha to speak.

“That was the last of the money you gave me.”

“I thought so much. Did you at least find anything you can wear for tonight?”

Angela finished off her cone and started talking excitedly, “Oh yes. You wouldn’t believe what kind of stuff I found there, and at what prices! Not only did I get a nice outfit for tonight, I also should be decked in for the next week.”

Fareeha raised her eyebrows but continued licking her ice cream while staring out to sea, “You planning on staying that long?”

The woman next to her made an exasperated huff, “Obviously, yeah. But only as to SOMEONE not wanting to make a deal with me!”

“Yeah that’s not happening.” Fareeha got up and threw the napkin from her finished cone into the garbage can next to the bench. “As it seem like I won’t be getting rid of you anytime soon then there are a few things I want to make clear.” She started counting on her fingers. “First, you will pay rent. I don’t care how you do it and it won’t be too much, but you will pay it. Second, if you really want to pass as an exchange student you might want to enroll in some classes at Watchpoint. And third, you will have to talk to the landlords because you won’t get me anywhere near them if I have a choice.”

Angela swallowed hard, “…or you just could make a deal with me?” She tried quietly.

“Nope. Now come on, there’s at least one of these things that we can do today.” All of a sudden Fareeha was back in a good mood. Angela on the other hand didn’t look forward to working off the list that Fareeha gave her.

“Pay rent? Who does she think I am?” She kept thinking to herself when she heard Fareeha calling for her.

“Are you coming or not?”

Quickly the demon jumped up from the bench and grabbed her bags. She might not appreciate the prospect of actually living together with someone that neither wanted to make a contract with her nor seemed to like her all that much, but it was better than wandering around a city that she didn’t know just because she got lost by herself. She had reached the waiting Fareeha with a few quick strides and the two women started making their way back home, grocery bags in hand.

 

When Fareeha first moved into her apartment she couldn’t believe her luck. The old building, built around the turn of the last century, was freshly renovated, had three floors, stood in a small quiet street, offered parking spaces for the tenants, had a car repair shop in the same building, balconies with an amazing view, and was actually fairly cheap in comparison with on-campus living. It was during her first week living there when she realized that she was the only other person on her floor, after some investigating (knocking on all doors in the building) she found out that she actually was the only other person besides the landlords living in the entire building. Not that she found the prospect on living alone there really scary as the landlords, an Australian named Jamison Fawkes aka Junkrat, and his best friend Mako “Roadhog” Rutledge from New Zealand, might seem a bit weird but are actually really nice guys, but it still wondered her as to why none of her friends or anybody else decided to rent apartments here.

Her question was answered when the fire alarm started blaring in the middle of the night during her second week. It seemed as if Junkrat had “accidentally” set his kitchen on fire when he tried out what would happen if you put an ostrich egg into the microwave. Over the next few months she became highly familiar with the distinct noise as it seemed like Junkrat could never run out of things to blow up, always on “accident” of course. But she managed; she managed to get used to it and always tries to stay as far away as possible from those two, just to make sure that she wouldn’t be involved in any of their mad hijinks.

 

When Fareeha and Angela arrived at the apartment building the taller woman stopped at the entrance to the car repair shop. Angela gave her a confused look.

“What are you doing? I thought we would need to talk to the landlords.”

Fareeha smirked. “We do, but as they currently seem to be working it wouldn’t do much good looking for them in the house.” She entered the shop.

Angela only followed reluctantly. “Oh bother.”

 

It was really hot inside and the noise level, with the sounds of welding and heavy metal music filling the air, was almost unbearable. Angela immediately felt uneasy. She jumped when there suddenly was a hand on her shoulder.

“You need to chill.” Fareeha had apparently stepped behind her, going unnoticed with all the other distraction.

“I am the incarnation of chill! I don’t know what you mean.” She retorted, clearly anxious, uneasy, and unchill.

Looking around to familiarize herself with her surroundings, she saw that there were currently two cars and two motorcycles in the shop. One of the cars was an old rusty pick-up truck with an opened hood and the motor block missing, the other one was a terribly dented dark grey Volkswagen Beetle with yellow racing stripes in the middle. It was missing all but one tire which was far too big for the poor little vehicle. She approached the two bikes in the back of the shop, which was also where the welding sound and the music came from. Just as she was about to reach the first of the two-wheeled vehicles a giant of a man stepped out of a door in the back wall wearing a gas mask and a metal pipe the size of Angela’s arm.

“What are you lookin’ at?” The muffled voice came through the mask.

Angela couldn’t take it anymore. She screamed, turned around, and ran straight into the suspended Beetle. Fareeha caught her before she could fall on the floor, the hit to the head seemingly having calmed her down.

“Is she alright?” The large man approached the two woman further, removing his gas mask and carefully placing the pipe on a close workbench. He turned down the music emitting from the radio on the workbench. “I didn’t mean to scare her.”

Now that the mask was gone Angela was able to see the man’s face. He had a three-day beard and his hair that he wore in a ponytail seemed to be starting to gray out. Due to the heat he wasn’t wearing a shirt, which gave one an impressive view on his tattooed stomach and muscular arms. He grabbed a towel that was lying around to clean his hands off as Fareeha started to speak.

“Don’t worry about it Roadhog, she has quite the hard head.” She chuckled as she remembered the encounter in the bathroom this morning. “But we’re not here to make more dents into poor lil’ Rip-Tire.” She pointed at the Beetle. “We’re here because Angela right here would like to ask you and Junkrat something.”

Roadhog scratched his chin and then turned towards the welding noise, which was still coming from somewhere back in the shop. “Junkrat!”

The welding stopped. “Oi!”

“Get to the office! There’s business!” Roadhog turned around and gestured to them to follow him.

“You have quite the impressive biceps, did you know that?” Fareeha looked down to Angela who was still in her arms and had apparently started to probe her arms. She simply dropped her.

“Was that really necessary.” She stood up and patted the dust off of her clothes.

“No, but it was funny to look at.” Fareeha giggled. “Now come on, they’re waiting.” She started walking towards the shop’s office. Angela quickly followed her, not wanting to be left alone.

When she entered the office she found that Fareeha had already taken a seat on what Angela could only describe as the _most fuck ugly piece of shit sofa_ she had ever seen in her life. The covering had a faded neon pink floral pattern on a brown-green background, none of the cushions were the same, all apparently carried together from flea markets and the likes, and the icing on the cake for Mercy were the literal shit ton of holes burnt into every single square inch of the piece of horrid furniture. Fareeha was patting a spot right next to her, which Angela only took after she decided that she would need a long shower as soon as they were back in the apartment. As she sat down Roadhog brought over a tablet with coffee and some kind of cookies, he placed them on the coffee table in front of the couch and sat down in one of the two lounge chairs standing opposite of Angela and Fareeha. He started pouring coffee into three mugs, which seemed comically small in comparison to his large hands as the door opened and a skinny man with wild blonde hair walked in.

Angela noticed that his right leg was replaced with a prosthetic, same as his right lower arm but his movements didn’t seem at all hindered by that. When Junkrat, Angela assumed he must be the one Roadhog called for, spoke his voice was laden with a heavy Australian accent.

“What do you want Roadhog? I’ll have you know that I’m currently very busy building a…” He looked at the two woman on the couch. “…a thing. Yes, a very important… thing.”

Roadhog pointed towards Angela. “Pharah said that she wanted to ask us something.”

Junkrat plopped down into the other lounge chair next to Roadhog, grabbing a handful of cookies and shoving them into his mouth. “Go ahead then.” He was barely understandable.

“I…uh…I think what Pharah – I mean Fareeha – wants me to ask you is – uh – if it is okay for me to be staying with her in her apartment? Just so you don’t think that there is a stranger lurking around your building and such and I will also be contributing to the rent.” To say that Angela was nervous would have been an immense understatement.

“That’s nice.” Roadhog chimed from behind his coffee mug.

“Now hold on a second.” Junkrat said, leaning forward and looking between Fareeha and Angela. “I’ve never seen her before and now she all of a sudden wants to move in with Pharah over here, that seems suspicious, doesn’t it Hog?”

A non-committal grunt from Roadhog who seemed to be more interested in dipping the cookies into his coffee. Angela could feel Fareeha tense up next to her, apparently she too had realized that it was strange to let somebody who you don’t even know for 24 hours live with you.

Junkrat stood up and walked around the coffee table to inspect Angela more closely. “Where are you from?”

“I am an exchange student from Zurich, Switzerland.” Angela swallowed.

“That sounds like you made it up!” Junkrat pointed an accusatory finger at her.

Angela panicked and was just about to sprint out of the shop as she suddenly felt Fareeha’s calming hand on her shoulder.

“Junkrat you know that Switzerland is a real place right?” Fareeha asked carefully.

“It is?” The Australian suddenly straightened himself up and had an embarrassed grin on his face. “I… Of course I know that Switzerland is real. I’m just messing with you. Come on it was a joke.” Junkrat might have been a lot of things, but a decent liar was not one of them.

Angela let out the breath she was holding and decided to take a sip of coffee. She immediately spit it back out as it seemed to be strong enough to be used as jet fuel, looking over to Fareeha she saw that the other woman hadn’t even touched her mug. The four of them continued to discuss a few minor details like an extra set of keys and the house rules (all three rules). After about 10 more minutes the two women left the auto repair shop and finally made their way up to Fareeha’s apartment.

As Fareeha stepped into her living room again she checked the clock that hung on the wall.

“Half past four. The party doesn’t start till eight.” She looked around the room noticing the still quite impressing mess her friends made yesterday. She hung her head. “Still enough time to clean this mess up and have a quick nap.” Instinctively she grabbed Angela at her shirts collar as she was trying to sneak past her. “And where do you think you’re going?”

“I just wanted to take a shower?” It came out more like a question than a statement.

“You don’t think I would clean this up myself, do you?”

Angela slumped her shoulders. What had she gotten herself into? “Fine. Where do I start?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter is party time!


	3. Chapter 3

Everything burned. Mercy closed her eyes, but the terribly burning still persisted. Within seconds it had reached her throat, eyes, and nose. Not even the fires of hell burned that terribly. She knew what she had to do and she did not like it.

When Angela swallowed the shot the group of people started cheering wildly, everybody clapping her on the back and congratulating her.

“See my friend, now that’s a real vodka!” The tall, muscular, pink-haired woman that had talked Angela into this predicament let out a hearty laugh, before she continued talking with a thick Russian accent in her voice. “If that was your first shot you should be happy that it was with top quality vodka from my home country and not that cheap piss that is sold here.”

Angela didn’t get any of that as she was currently trying her best not to die from a coughing fit. The tall Russian, Angela remembers that Fareeha had introduced her as Aleksandra Zaryanova or Zarya for short, noticed that and quickly handed her a full bottle, which she immediately chugged empty. A slight fuzziness started to spread in her brain, but she choose to ignore that and turned to Zarya.

“Could I have something less alcoholic maybe?”

“Less alcoholic than the beer that you just emptied or more of the same?”

Angela looked at the empty bottle in her hand. The label read something in Spanish that she didn’t understand, it probably translated to _beer_ , but she couldn’t remember the taste at all.

“I think another beer should be sufficient.”

“Another beer, coming right up.” With 6”5’ was Zarya an imposing picture to behold and due to the fact that she was built like a mountain had she no problem forming her way through the crowd toward the kitchen.

Angela put the empty bottle down on a nearby table and looked around. She currently was in the living room of a small house just outside of town. Apparently it belonged to the parents of a certain Mei-Ling Zhou and she lived here while she visited the Watchpoint University. At the moment it was filled with 20 or more already drunk University students with more of them outside and upstairs, all dancing to the music booming from speakers placed everywhere around the building.

The evening had started out nice enough: After cleaning up the apartment had taken Fareeha and Angela longer than expected each of them had quickly taken a shower and got dressed. Fareeha had called them a cab which took them to Zarya and Tracer’s place on campus. Some quick pre-gaming later, which Angela cleverly had skipped by simply pretending to nurse her drink the entire time, all four of them had called yet another cab that finally took them to Mei’s place.

They had just arrived when Tracer had the brilliant idea of getting shots, in the end it was only Angela who drank one because nobody else wanted to try a shot of the vodka bottle Zarya had brought with her.

Angela decided that she didn’t like the music all that much and when Zarya returned with a fresh, cold beer she simply excused herself and started making her way outside, in hopes of finding Fareeha. She found the other woman sitting next to Lena on some beach chairs placed around a currently burning campfire. Upon spotting the blonde the little Brit excitedly started waving her towards an empty beach chair next to Fareeha. Angela sat down.

“Cheers love, how have you been enjoying yourself so far?” Lena seemed quite eager to change the subject from whatever it was that she had been discussing with Fareeha.

Before Angela could answer the woman next to her interrupted. She was currently also holding a beer bottle, although hers was already half empty. “Oh no, you won’t be pulling yourself out of this one, Miss Oxton.  You’ve avoided that topic for far too long. How did this happen?” She pointed at the tattoo under her right eye.

“I don’t know what you’re on about it looks good.”

“Answers. Now.” Fareeha’s voice had something low and threatening, Angela liked that.

“Alright, alright, I spill.” Lena deflated and took a swig from her cup, probably filled with some kind of liquor/juice-mix, bracing herself for what was to come. “You know how I said that you always seemed so tense the last weeks? Zarya and I know what this was about.” Angela saw Fareeha shift uncomfortably, but the other woman did not interrupt Lena. “So we decided that you needed to let loose again, you know? Go on a real nice bender with your friends, forget about your problems and all that.”

“Get to the point.” Fareeha was visibly tense.

“I’m getting to it, chill. Anyways, at about three or so in the morning we were already on the way home, you started talking to Zarya about her tattoo and how you always thought about getting one. Next thing we know, you were gone. After searching for the better part of an hour we found you outside of the only tattoo pallor that was still open at that time, crying with some pizza and a brand new tattoo. I’d still like to know where you got that pizza, that shit was amazing.”

Fareeha leaned back in her chair and emptied her beer in one quick chug. She looked over to Angela, correction, to Angela’s beer. Wordlessly the demon handed her the beverage. It too, was gone within seconds. Seemingly calmed down she got up.

Angela looked up at her. “Where’re you going?”

“I drank your beer. That was rude. I’ll get you another one.” She made her way towards the house, leaving a silent Angela and a dumbfounded Lena behind.

“She a true party animal isn’t she?” Angela said sarcastically, turning towards Lena.

“Don’t worry your little head about that, she’ll be up and running soon enough. The alcohol just takes some time to work its magic.” The Brit took another sip from her cup and apparently decided that it needed a bit more punch because with one swift motion she pulled bottle of tequila from the grass beneath the beach chair. While pouring the golden liquor into her cup she made eye contact with Angela. “Want some to?”

“I’d rather not.”

“Come on, just one sip. It’s not that bad.” Angela took the bottle.

It was that bad, but at least it didn’t send her coughing. She handed the bottle back to Lena, who seemed to be looking around, searching for somebody.

“Can’t find your dear Amélie, Tracer?” A young dark skinned man with dreadlocks and wearing a green tank top with a frog on it approached the fire.

“Shut up Lúcio.” Lena laughed and flipped, her apparent friend, off.

Lúcio let himself fall into the chair next to the Brit clinking cups with her. He turned towards Angela “And who do I, Lúcio Correia dos Santos, have the pleasure of meeting tonight on this faithful evening.”

“I…uh..what?” Angela didn’t know how to deal with this. Luckily Fareeha came to her rescue.

“This is Angela. She’s here with me.” She gave Lúcio a meaningful look.

“Aw come on Pharah! Seriously, that happens every time. Whenever I meet a good-looking lady, you come in and swoop her away like a majestic, very gay bird. That’s just not fair!” He put on a mocking pout.

Fareeha just grinned and shrugged. “It’s not my fault that the ladies like me better than you.” She handed Angela a new bottle of beer.

Whatever retort Lúcio had planned, fell short as the host of the party arrived. Well rather, Zarya arrived outside, carrying Mei under her arm like it was nothing. The small Chinese woman gave everyone a wave. “Hi guys.”

A collective “Hello” made the round.

“Why don’t you come and sit with us? It’s really nice out here.” Lena proposed.

Zarya looked around, still not putting the poor Mei down. “It seems there are not enough chairs. I will go and get some.”

“No need for that.” Lúcio chimed in with Lena. “If Angela here has nothing against sitting on Pharah’s lap we all have plenty of room.”

“Yeah exactly! But it might not feel as good as sitting on her face. Am I right Angie?” Lena was now a giggling mess next to Lúcio, who could barely contain his own laughter.

Fareeha sat down in her previous seat counting on Zarya to get another chair, but she realized that she was mistaken as soon as she felt Angela making herself comfortable on her thighs.

“Yeah you’re right, but I think it’ll do nicely.” Angela joined in with Lúcio’s and Lena’s cackling, the small amount of alcohol she consumed seemingly already got to her. Luckily they were all too distracted to notice how red Fareeha’s cheeks had gotten.

“Thank you Angela, that’s very nice of you.” Mei gave the blonde a smile so bright it could melt icebergs.

“Yes very nice.” Fareeha sounded slightly disgruntled.

When everybody had taken their seat it was Lúcio who was the first to speak. “Now that we’re all gathered here around the fire like in a shitty teen movie do you guys wanna crank up the cliché meter even more and play a drinking game?”

“Ohhh that’s sounds like a terrible idea. I’m in!” Lena exclaimed as she started pouring more tequila in her cup. “What about you?” She asked into the group without addressing anyone specifically.

“You can count me in.” Zarya raised her glass.

“Me too!” Mei seemed pretty excited.

“I`d rather take it slow.” Fareeha sighed, leaning back in her chair.

Angela turned around to her. “Aw, come on. I play too, but only if you do.”

“Yeah come on captain, you can`t let us down like that!” Now Lena was fired up, trying to get the others to join in with convincing Fareeha.

“No, but I can make you run laps for the next three training sessions.” That got at least the Brit to shut up.

It was Zarya who made the final push. “I think Pharah is just afraid of losing against me.”

Fareeha immediately was fire and flame. “I am not afraid of losing to anybody I’ll show you! What are we playing?” Everybody started to laugh.

 

They played several drinking games in the course of the next few hours. At one point Mei had gotten up to check on her other guests and had returned with playing cards. Everybody, including Angela, had their fair share of losses and more than enough to drink. In the end, as the party was starting to dwindle down, Mei was sleeping soundly on her chair and everybody else was far beyond tipsy, except Zarya who still looked like she could wrestle a bear and win.

They made a pause from playing their latest drinking game, of which nobody had any idea how it was actually played and everybody just randomly drank, when Zarya got up.

“Oi where ya goin’, we’re jus’ gettin’ started.” Lena was still holding her tequila bottle, but she now had completely ditched her cup.

“I will return shortly, but first I must bring our gracious host to bed.” She started to pick up Mei from the beach chair.

“Don’t forget to kiss your sleeping beauty goodnight.” Lúcio giggled until he was interrupted by his own burp.

Zarya didn’t say anything but she was obviously blushing. The group got quiet after the Russian had left.

“Can we pleashe play shomething elsh? I really don’t get thish game.” Angela was looking confused at the cards in her hand, quite drunk already. During the course of their games she and Fareeha had apparently gotten used to their sitting situation, as she was now comfortably lying back with Fareeha’s arms around her stomach and her head on her shoulder, although the consumed alcohol might have also helped its part.

“How ‘bout truth or dare!” Lena was getting louder by the minute.

“We don’t have a surface to spin a bottle on.” Fareeha still sounded pretty sober, but everyone who knew her for some time knew that she was right on the brink on being full-on wasted.

Lúcio triumphantly raised his phone above his head. “There’s an app for that! I just quickly need to put in your names.” Everyone could see that he had immense problems navigating the smartphone’s interface in his current intoxicated condition.

“I don’t think that this is the best id-“

“Fareeha! Truth or dare.” Lúcio interrupted.

“Ugh. Dare.” Fareeha rolled her eyes.

Lúcio rubbed his hands in anticipation. “Alright, are you prepared for the most brutal dare of all time? This will be so destructive that no one will ever forget this evening!”

“You’re going to make me finish my drink, aren’t you?”

Lúcio visibly deflated. “Was it really that obvious?”

Lena patted him on the back. “You’ve been doin’ this ever since we met 3 years ago. Nobody falls for this anymore luv’.”

Fareeha emptied her bottle with ease, quickly replacing it with another one from a six-pack she snatched from the kitchen. “Alright who’s next?”

The next few rounds were pretty standard, they mostly dared each other to drink or at most eat grass. That was until Angela’s turn to decide a truth or dare for Lena was interrupted by a returning Zarya.

“Lúcio, you told me to watch out if that Lacroix girl shows up. Apparently she just arrived and is getting herself a drink in the kitchen.” The Russian said as she sat down at the fire.

Lúcio suddenly had a mischievous grin on his face. “Angela! Quick, come with me.” He got up, almost fell over, and grabbed Angela by the hand. The poor blonde had no idea what to do so she simply followed him behind a tree near the fire.

Fareeha who suddenly felt the comforting weight of the other woman missing looked over to Lena. “Lacroix? As in Amélie Lacroix, the woman who you gushed about how much you want her to choke you at the last house party, but never actually have spoken to?”

Lena’s face turned beet red. “I don’t know what you are talking about.” But she threw a nervous look over her shoulder when she heard both Angela and Lúcio loudly laughing behind the tree. When the two returned they both wore a devious grin on their face.

“So, Lena, truth or dare?” Angela spoke softly, but the evil intend was obvious.

“Uh, fuck, you and Lúcio probably made sure that neither of those choices is any good, am I right?”

Lúcio fell into his chair again. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Fine. Dare” Lena braced for what was to come.

Angela let herself fall down on Fareeha’s lap again, knocking the air out of the already seated woman. “Dare it is. Alright, all I want of you is, to go inside, find Amélie, and hit her with the cheesiest and most ridiculous pick-up lines you know.” She gave the now shocked frozen Brit a drunk grin. “You should get going or do you want to know what you would have to tell us when you pick Truth?”

Lena sprung up, took a big swig of her now almost empty tequila, and spoke. “I’ll get you back for this one.” She stormed off into the house.

“Don’t you guys think that you took it a bit too far?” Zarya asked, putting another log into the fire.

“Nah. She will be fine.” Lúcio gave a dismissive wave with his hand.

 

For a few seconds they sat in silence that was until a very pissed off Lena, covered from head to toe in punch, came running out of the front door. “LÚCIO!”

“I’ll better get goin’.” The short man sprung up.

“Good luck.” Zarya chuckled and watched him start into full sprint into the houses opposite direction.

 

When Lúcio and Lena returned they both looked terribly exhausted and sank into their chairs with relief.

Fareeha was the first to speak again. “So how did it go?”

“You can guess three times!” The punch covered woman said. “You could say she PUNCH-ed me.”

Angela gave of a drunken giggle. “So what pick-up line did you choose?”

The Brit blushed, but still grinned slyly. “Girl, are you cheese? Cause goudaMN that booty is fine.”

They all looked at each other before breaking out into suffocating laughter.

“What did she say?” Zarya was barely able to ask through her laughing.

Lena leaned back. “You can see what she thought of it.” She motioned over her now ruined outfit. “But, believe it or not,” she raised her hand, “she gave me her number.”

Everybody looked at her in disbelief. Lúcio had the biggest shit-eating grin one could possibly fit onto a human face. “I told you she likes you, you just had to speak to her.”

“Just shut up and tell me who I can punish for this.” Lena motioned to Lúcio’s smartphone. The devices beeped a few times before displaying a name: Pharah.

Fareeha wholeheartedly disliked the look Lena gave her. “Come on, I had nothing to do with this.”

“Sure, sure. Fareeha, truth or dare?”

Never being the person to share a lot of personal things, Fareeha picked dare, immediately regretting her decision when the Brit started tapping her hands together like a Bond villain.

“So, Fareeha, for someone who apparently has enough game to pick up a literal angel”, she motioned towards Angela who was too drunk to get the unintended irony, ”at like four o’clock in the morning while blackout-drunk, you showed us very little of your skills tonight. So what I want you to do is simply to kiss Angela. Right now.” The Brit leaned back with a triumphant grin. If she had to embarrass herself in front of everybody, so would Fareeha, who had always had problems with displaying affection in public.

Fareeha looked around nervously, seeing a lot of potential audience members. “On a second thought, I would like to pick Truth.”

“No do-overs.” Zarya chimed in, still drinking at maximum level, still looking sober enough to crush melons in her bare hands.

“What is it captain, are you scared of a bit of intimacy?” Lena continued teasing.

“I-uh - come on, can’t I do something else?”

“Ugh, what is taking so long?” Angela finally said, got up and turned around. When she sat down again, she straddled Fareeha’s hips and grabbed both sides of her face. Angela brought their faces together, quickly closing her eyes as she went in for the kiss. Fareeha’s heart was beating like a machine gun, over the course of the day she had stolen quite a few glances towards Angela’s soft lips but she would have never imagined that she actually would get to taste and feel them up close. As it turned out she wouldn’t.

The swift movements and shifts in positions where too much for Angela and just as she was about to make contact, she suddenly flung herself to the side and vomited into the grass. Everyone was quiet for a moment. It was Lúcio who broke the silence.

 “Really? That bad?” Lena and Zarya laughed.

Fareeha ignored them and was quickly at Angela’s side, holding her hair back so that she wouldn’t get it messy while the blonde continued to vomit on the greenery.

“I think this is our sign to call it a night.” Fareeha put Angela’s arm around her shoulder and helped her up.

“No, I haven’t kished you yet!” The blonde was looking terrible, the full effects of the alcohol just now surfacing.

“And I think after that show, you won’t for the rest of the night.” Fareeha started to pull her towards the streets so that she could hail a taxi. “Say goodnight to everybody.”

“Night.” Angela fully gave up on walking and jumped at Fareeha, who just barely managed to catch her in a bridal carry.

“Alright guys, see you all tomorrow.” Fareeha waved a bit awkwardly to the group, having both hands full with an already snoring drunk demon. They all said their goodbyes, understanding the sudden shift in the mood, they would get to tease Fareeha about this soon enough.

Fareeha ended this eventful day by tugging Mercy into her own bed, deciding that for tonight she could handle sleeping on the couch. She quickly fell asleep as exhaustion, alcohol, but also a small bit of disappointment that she couldn’t quite place, washed over her. What did she get herself into?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the long wait. I'll try to get the next one out faster.


	4. Chapter 4

Sundays had always been Fareeha’s favorite. She never had training or university on Sundays, no obligations, nothing.  Sundays she could just be herself by herself. Sadly that last point and her other Sunday standard, sleeping in, were obviously not going to happen that day, as she was lying awake on her sofa with a still sleeping Mercy on her stomach.

She stared at the snoring blonde with a mix of confusion and interest. The demon’s sleeping features seemed so calm in contrast to when she was awake. Fareeha had known Mercy now for about 24 hours and this was the first time she had seen her without the constant glint of mischief in her eyes or the feeling that the demon was planning something to get her to sign a contract. She looked so content simply lying here with Fareeha.

“Wait a second!” Lying here, with her, although she was sure she had tucked the demon into her bed last night. Fareeha’s eyes suddenly widened and she forcefully shoved Mercy’s still sleeping form off the couch, where she hit the floor with a painful ‘ _THUD_ ’.

Now widely awake, Mercy slowly got up. “Now I usually don’t like to swear, but: WHAT THE FUCK!?”

“Why are you here?” Fareeha was also standing now.

Methodically rubbing her temples, apparently demons could get hungover too, the other woman looked at her and quietly answered, obviously annoyed, “How often do I need to explain this to you? I am here because you won’t make a contract with me and I can’t leave until…”

“Not that! Why were you sleeping on top of me on the couch?!” she interrupted.

That took all the wind out of Mercy’s sails. Fareeha could see the blush slowly creeping up the entirety of the blonde’s face, all the way up to her ears.

“I am sorry, I don’t know what you are talking about.” It didn’t sound very convincing.

“Well then how do you explain that you woke up in the living room, on the floor?” Fareeha inquired further, taking a step closer to Mercy, who just now started to take in her surroundings.

“I don’t know, maybe aliens?” She tried to shy away from the approaching form of the other woman, but she realized quickly that she had reached a dead end when she felt the wall mounted TV at her back.

Fareeha scoffed at that retort, still walking closer. “A demon telling me about aliens, now that is a story you don’t hear every day, why should I believe that?”

“I-if demons exist, then why shouldn’t aliens?” Mercy stuttered, getting more and more nervous about the taller woman closing in. She tried looking everywhere expect at Fareeha. All of those efforts where immediately stopped when Fareeha put a finger under her chin and lifted her head up to face her.

With their faces just mere centimeters away the two women came to a halt, Mercy swallowed hard.

“Don’t do that again.” Fareeha lightly patted Mercy’s cheek. The darker woman turned around and took off towards the kitchen. “I do not like being cuddled without asking first.”

“I DID NOT cuddle you!” The demon needed a few seconds to recover from what had just transpired, not understanding why her face felt so hot or her heart was beating so fast.

“Oh, you didn’t? Then what else would you call sleeping on top of me with a fistful of my shirt then?” The retort could be heard over the sounds of a breakfast being made.

“I don’t know.” Mercy sat back down on the couch, trying to remember what had happened last night past the looming headache proofed to be harder than anticipated. “Actually I don’t even know how I got to the sofa… or home.”

“You can thank me for that whenever, and the cuddling thing, I just think you wanted to finish what you started at the party.” The eyebrow-wagging could be heard even from the living room.

Mercy jumped up. “I did WHAT?!”

At this point Fareeha came out of the kitchen with two steaming cups of coffee. She laughed at the look of distress and embarrassment on the blondes face. “Relax, nothing happened, I was kidding. You tried to kiss me as a joke, but vomited before you could even get close to the goal. It was kinda’ funny actually. Who knew that demons can’t hold their liquor?”

The hot black liquid was almost as good as her healing magic, Mercy noted as she took a careful sip after one of the cups was handed to her. “What you saw yesterday was my first experience with human alcohol, even back home I didn’t like drinking all that much. So I’m very sorry for anything that happened, if you wish me to leave all you have to do is to sign-“

“Not gonna happen.” Fareeha let herself fall into the seat next to her, grabbing for the TV remote on the coffee table with her free hand. “Mind if I ask a short bureaucratic question?”

“Go ahead. If demons can handle one thing then it’s bureaucracy.”

“How do you want to pass as an exchange student if the university doesn’t even know you exist and has none of the necessary paperwork on hand that would explain your enrollment at the end of the semester?” She had started flipping through the channels, only paying half attention to what was playing.

“Magic.” Mercy took another careful sip from the cup, having the feeling that her answer was pretty self-explanatory. It took her a few moments to notice that the woman next to her had completely stopped dead in her tracks to give her the most disbelieving look that was possible with the muscles that evolution had gifted her with.

“Please. Please, don’t tell me you simply plan on waltzing into the administration building tomorrow and brainwash everybody there to fake your enrollment. That’s everything except bureaucratic.”

“Now that you actually said it out loud it sounds even more like a foolproof plan than I initially thought.” The demon leaned back triumphantly.

“No. No! NO! Nononono, no, we are not fucking doing that!” Fareeha had now placed her cup down and was shaking her head to emphasize how much she objected this idea.

There it was again, that glint of mischief in Mercy’s eyes. “You are right, WE are not doing anything, I will handle this situation. I think I have been enough of a nuisance already, so please let me do this by myself.”

The woman next to her facepalmed, hard. “You know I can’t let you do this, right? I will stop you if I have to.”

The demon grinned. “Let me tell you a secret concerning that.” She motioned with her free hand for Fareeha to come closer.

Still filled with mistrust, but not thinking anything bad, Fareeha followed Mercy’s request, so she was completely unprepared when the demon kissed her. It wasn’t a deep kiss or an overtly romantic one, just a simple peck on the lips.

“What the fuck?!” Fareeha reeled back as fast as she could. “Why the fuck did you do that?” She suddenly felt woozy.

“Listen”, Mercy placed her cup down and slowly crawled towards her on the couch, speaking calmly, “I can’t have you trying to blow my cover by keeping me from doing what I have to. So, you’re going to sleep now, for let’s say,” the demon checked the clock above the door to the kitchen, “thirty hours. I know, that sounds a bit excessive, but it will give me enough time to get the bureaucracy done, and you the best rest you probably had in a long time. No hard feeling, right?”

Fareeha tried to fight the fatigue as best as she could, but to no avail, within seconds she fell into a deep slumber, filled with dreams of unfairly hot demons and visions of kisses she would deny till the day she died.

 

 

It was Lena’s ringtone that finally woke her up. The blaring of Danger Zone (that girl REALLY loves that song) ripped Fareeha right out of the middle of a fantasy including Mercy in her demon form and as Angela. With her face as hot as a small sun she quickly remembered what had happened before she fell asleep and started wildly looking around, searching for the demon. While searching for the offending woman she noticed that she was in her bed, a glass of water on her bedside table, and a note. She already wanted to grab for the note when the refrain of the ringtone set in, quickly she grabbed for the phone.

“Hel-“, she wanted to say more, but her mouth felt like the Gobi desert all of a sudden. Grabbing for the glass of water, she wanted to continue talking after taking a sip, but with a woman like Lena “Tracer” Oxton your chance to speak was up as soon as you made a pause.

“Oi, finally you picked up. I’ve been worried about you, girl. Where were you today at school? Or Lunch? Or training! By the gods, I’ve never would have believed that you would skip on training. Are you dead? You have to be dead to miss practice. Wait a second, you picked up! Does that mean that I’m currently calling the after-life? Oh boy, I always wanted to talk to a ghost. How’s it over there? How’s the reception? Did you meet my uncle Vinnie? He’s not really my uncle, don’t worry, but he owes me 20 quid. I really ne-“

“Lena!” Having finally found her voice Fareeha interrupted.

“Yeah?”

“Please shut up, I need to ask a few questions.”

“Whatever you say, my undead friend.”

“First off, I’m not dead.” She could hear a sound of disbelief from the other side of the speaker. “Really, not dead. Anyways, what day is it? What’s the time? Have you seen Mer- Angela?”

Now the only thing coming from the Brit from the other side of the phone was quiet. After a good half minute pause, she finally spoke, “It is Monday, 4pm.  Yes, I have seen Angela, she’s right here with me, do you want to speak to her?” There was obvious uncertainty in her voice. “Are you sure you’re alright?”

“Yes,” Fareeha’s voice was cold, “would you pretty please just give me my _roommate_.” The sound of the mobile phone being handed around could be heard followed by a voice that was positively dripping with innocence.

“Hello, Angela Ziegler, medicine student at Watchpoint University, speaking.”

“Now listen here, and listen closely. As soon as you come through that door of mine I will take that pretty little head of yours, rip it of your shoulders and stick –“

“What was that? The reception is really bad, I can’t hear you, all I got from that was that you called me pretty. I’m charmed but we’ll talk when I get home, okay? Bye.” With that Angela simply hung up. The Brit walking next to her gave her a curious look.

“Now what was that about? And don’t tell me any shite about the reception, I know that excuse well enough.”

Angela continued her way down the sidewalk, towards her apartment. She had a brown leather satchel slung over her shoulder, containing everything she needed for her studies. Brainwashing the university’s administration was easy enough, and in under an hour she was a fully-fledged student of the Watchpoint University of Gibraltar, with classes, a student ID, and everything. After picking up the required books, all of them free thanks to her powers, she ran into Lena, who was feverishly looking for Fareeha. A few well-placed words later and the two of them were now on their way to visit Angela’s “sick” roommate, armed with Chinese take-out and an entire list of get-better movies to watch.

“Hello? Anybody home?” Lena was waving her hand in front of Angela’s face.

“I’m sorry, I seem to have zoned out. What did you ask me?” In truth, she was tired. Although brainwashing wasn’t an incredibly hard task per se, it took quite a toll on her, as she hadn’t been able to replenish her magic recently, so at the moment a nap sounded quite heavenly to the demon.

Lena immediately sprung back to her chipper self. “I just wanted to know what all that bad reception stuff was about.”

“Let’s call it a lovers’ quarrel.” Angela answered with a devilish grin.

That made Lena perk up. “Ohhhh, come on give me details, anything. Was that the reason why Pharah didn’t show up today? Was she exhausted because you two, you know…?” Lena continued asking questions of this kind for the entire way home, permanently accompanied by exorbitant amounts of eyebrow-wagging, innuendos, and winks. At first the demon was amused by the Brit because she knew it would annoy Fareeha having to clean up this mess, but after a never ending onslaught of words out of the shorter woman’s mouth, dread started to set in.

By the time they stood in front of Fareeha’s, and now also Angela’s, apartment the demon had already forgotten about what was waiting for her on the inside. So of course she was surprised when the door sprung open, even before the blonde had fished her new key out of her pocket. In the doorframe stood Fareeha, quasi boiling with rage. Angela let out a meekly peep, knowing that she fucked up big time.

Lena was completely oblivious of what was going on. “Cheers love! I hope you’re feeling better already. We brought you food and movies, all the things you need to get back on your feet.”

Fareeha calmly turned towards the shorter woman standing in the hallway. “Lena sweetie, would you mind if Angela and I have a little ‘ _talk_ ’?”

“No problemo, captain.” She gave a little mock salute and started pulling out her phone and earphones as a dark skinned hand grabbed Angela at her collar and practically dragged her inside.

The door shut itself harshly after the demon had entered. Once inside Fareeha pushed her against the next best wall, using the still grabbed collar to lift her up on her tiptoes. Again were their faces just mere centimeters apart, but the playfulness this action had possessed the day before was all but gone, replaced by feelings of hurt and anger.

“Open up your ears because I’m only gonna say this once,” Fareeha spoke coldly through gritted teeth, “As soon as I let go of you, you have three minutes to get all your shit and leave my life forever, otherwise I will make you leave, and no sorry, no magic, and no other demon contract nonsense will make me change my mind. Understood?”

Angela was having trouble keeping herself upright, but still managed to nod and choke out a sound of agreement. The other woman let go of her and she fell hard to the ground on her knees.

“Your three minutes start now.” Turning towards the door to let Lena know that now isn’t a good time to hang out, Fareeha noticed that the demon had made no indication of moving off the floor to pack up her stuff. She was just about to go off at Angela again when she heard something she wasn’t expecting: sobs.

Tiny, quiet, choked sobs were emitting from the blonde figure on the floor. Uncertain of what she was supposed to do now she slowly approached Angela, her intimidating, angry aura gone within seconds. Just as she was about to put a hand on her shoulder, the demon suddenly withdrew. Almost like a scared animal shying away. Fareeha tried to move after her, but Angela quickly got up, now visibly crying, and stormed off towards the bedroom, slamming the door behind her.

This wasn’t how she had planned this to go down. She expected screaming and yelling and throwing insults at each other, but she had never imagined that a demon, from whatever ungodly realm she came from, would simply start crying because of what she had said to her.

Fareeha quickly opened the front door to check in on Lena, but to her great relief did the younger woman have a bit more tact than most would believe. A little quickly scribbled note hung in the door frame, the writing clearly Lena’s.

 

_Don’t really know what’s goin’ on. Doesn’t feel like my place to ask._

_See you hopefully again tomorrow._

_Love, Lena_

_PS: Don’t miss training again! Morrison was pretty pissed when you didn’t show up._

Fareeha let out a heavy sigh. She was in enough trouble already why couldn’t anybody give her a break. Picking up the takeout bags the Brit left in front of the door, she locked it behind her and put the food on her kitchen counter. Her attention was drawn to her _roommate_ once again when she heard a large amount of shuffling from the other side of her bedroom door.

With quiet steps Fareeha approached it. She was just about to knock, her knuckles already almost touching the wood, when Angela yanked at the handle and almost stormed into her. The blonde looked terrible. Her entire face was red from crying, and trails of tears made their way down her cheeks. Fareeha noticed that apparently the demon had invested into make-up as the water from her eyes was also working on turning it into an impressive mess with hair sticking to the wettest spots.

Angela scowled when she looked at her and her voice was filled with poison when she spoke. “What do you want? I’ll make sure that I take everything with me, no need to observe me.” She started turning around again.

“Angela, wait.” Fareeha tried to grab for her shoulder again but her hand was swatted away.

“Why should I?!” Now the demon was yelling. “You gave me only three minutes, or do you want me to take longer, so you can throw me out yourself?! No I get it! I get it, I fucked up! My first time in the human world by myself, trying everything I can, and BOOM I fucked up. It was obvious that that was going to happen, wasn’t it?” More violent sobs. “But I tried, okay? I tried my best despite everybody saying that I can’t do it. I really thought I could prove them wrong.” Angela sank on the floor on top of the pile of clothes she had gathered. “OBVIOUSLY I couldn’t, and now I’m stuck here. OH WAIT, I’m not even stuck HERE, but out there!” She pointed towards the window, “In a world I barely know anything about.” The crying intensified.

Now Fareeha felt guilty, she knelt down so she was face to face with Angela. “But, I mean, can’t you just go back to where you came from?”

As soon as she had finished talking, she found herself pinned with her back to the floor, with Mercy in her full demon glory on top of her. The previously blue eyes became a dark purple, the blonde hair now a raven black, the horns as sharp as ever grew faster than Fareeha could notice, a pair of leathery reddish black wings sprouted from the demons back, and a spiked tail of the same color now snaked its way up to come face to face with the woman on her back. But Mercy’s face was not one of wrath, it wore an expression which seemed more like a mix between anger and frustration. There were still tears in her eyes and when she spoke Fareeha could see the sharp fangs her teeth had turned into.

“How can you still don’t FUCKING get it? I CANNOT leave until I have a FUCKING contract with your signature on it! I don’t have enough magic to return by myself.” As if on cue her entire demon form disappeared again and she slumped face first into Fareeha’s chest, where she continued her crying. “I don’t want to be here anymore. Please, please, please, sign the contract.”

“No”

Another choked out sob.

“But you may stay here.”

That made Mercy raise her head. “Really?”

“If I can’t sign that contract to get you back home, I can at least help you to feel at home here, right?”

Mercy made a face that looked like someone had suggested fixing a headshot with a Band-Aid, but gratitude quickly set in. She now sat up, but still remained on top of Fareeha. “Thank you. I realize I haven’t really treated you the nicest way and have been a great pain in the ass, I will try to improve that.” She started wiping her face with her hands.

“And I’ll try to consider your position in this situation a bit more, okay? Speaking of position...” Fareeha gestured towards the entirety of Mercy straddling her hips.

“Right away, just one more thing…” With that Mercy leaned down, cupped Fareeha’s cheeks and kissed her. Not like Sunday morning, quick and sloppy, this one was soft, slow, and there was just a second of hesitation before Mercy made contact, that Fareeha used to close the gap.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Took long enough, didn't it? But this chapter wouldn't have happened at all if it wasn't for so many nice comments, so thanks for that.  
> Now I'm gonna get drunk, Happy Halloween!


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm still here!

The hot water felt good on her skin. For a second Fareeha just stood there and reveled in the warmth of the shower, after all her last one was on Saturday before leaving to Mei’s party. While starting to soap herself up she began to think about everything that had happened since she had woken up from that terrible hangover after her friends had brought her out to cheer her up last Friday.

“It’s amazing how fast things can change”, she said to herself as she rinsed out her hair. Her mind started to wander to the biggest most recent change in her life, Angela. How will they go on? Fareeha wondered if they even could go on. She knew that Angela couldn’t leave, but was that really her problem? The demon chose her, but she didn’t choose the demon, so she shouldn’t have any obligations towards her, right? But Fareeha knew that she had to big a heart to just throw Angela out. Especially after what had transpired earlier on the bedroom floor.

She closed her eyes and thought back to the kiss, their first real kiss, not like the one on Sunday. It was nice. Okay understatement. It was **really** nice. Fareeha could agree on that, but what the kiss meant for the relationship between Angela and her, she didn’t know. In her favor spoke that no one knew that Angela was a demon, against that stood the fact that she practically knew nothing about her and, while hot, Angela was still a fucking demon. Flashes of Angela’s real form, Mercy, now made their way into the forefront of Fareeha’s mind. The wings, the horns, the hair, the tail, she thought about it all and opened her eyes. She had made her decision.

Satisfied with her solution to this problem she was just about to start getting rid of the soap on her body when there suddenly was a muffled BOOM from somewhere on the lower floors, followed by a blaring alarm which shook the entire building.

Already knowing the drill, this was definitely the doing of her landlord, she jumped out of the shower, grabbed her bathrobe (the one that Roadhog had gifted her for this exact occasion) and stormed out the bathroom and almost into a bleary-eyed Angela, who had been napping in the bedroom.

“What is going on?” The demon was still rubbing her eyes. “That noise has no business being so loud when I try to sleep.”

“That’s the fire alarm. We need to leave the building until the fire department shows up.” Fareeha started to pull Angela towards the door.

Angela, still being half asleep, simply grinned a little and quietly said, “We also have a fire department back home, although I think they kind of do the opposite of yours.”

The two of them quickly made their way downstairs and out on the street, where Junkrat and Roadhog already were waiting on the red truck that came driving around the corner. If it was destiny or sheer bad luck on the fire department’s side that had placed their headquarter just a few blocks away from Junkrat’s garage, no one could say, but it was through that stroke of fate that they always arrived within minutes of the first sounding of the fire alarm.

When Roadhog saw the two women leave the building he waved them over. “Hi.” His deep voice even made a simple greeting sound threatening.

“Evening.” Fareeha placed herself next to him, as they both watched the blonde man with burned hair tips talk to the firemen. “What was it this time?”

“Tried to repaint the customer bathroom.” The large man made a sound that could either have been a chuckle or a menacing laughter, Angela really had a hard time telling.

“Let me guess: He tried using homemade explosives?”

“Yeah.”

“And he couldn’t wait till I wasn’t home?”

“Nope.”

“Any structural damages?”

“Besides the lightbulb, the sink, and the customer toilet? Nope.” This conversation looked far too practiced for Angela’s liking. She carefully cleared her throat. Both, Roadhog and Fareeha, turned their heads to her.

“Does that happen often?” It was a genuine question, but the two people opposite to her looked at her like she suddenly grew a third head. They both answered in unison.

“You’ll get used to it.”

“Excuse me?” Angela couldn’t believe what she just heard, but for the other two the conversation was already over.

“If that’s all I would like to resume my shower. Night Mako.” Fareeha started back towards the front door, absentmindedly waving the New Zealander goodbye.

“Night.” He remained standing there, still waiting for his best friend to finish his ordeal with the local authorities. In the end he would get a warning, he always did.

It was in the staircase when Angela finally noticed what Fareeha was wearing.

“Are you naked?” She asked slightly shocked.

The other woman just turned her head slightly to respond while still walking up the stairs, “Obviously not, I’m wearing a bathrobe.”

A slightly exasperated huff, “I meant under that.”

“Of course not!” Now Fareeha stopped and turned around. “I always shower in a 20000€ Armani suit, I wear this on top of it so you don’t get jealous.”

“You know what? Fuck you.” Angela stomped past her, but failed to convincingly feign anger as she started giggling.

By the time they reached the apartment door they both were cackling like stupid. Finally inside Fareeha made her way back towards the shower while Angela plopped herself on the couch, turning on the TV.

A couple of minutes later, a now squeaky-clean, Fareeha entered the room out of a cloud of fresh steam. She was wearing a loose fitting pajama shirt and some comfy boxer shorts as she placed herself next to the demon. The both of them sat in comfortable silence watching the happenings on the screen. That was until Fareeha started to speak.

“Could we talk?”

Angela pressed the mute button on the remote and turned to her. “About what?”

Fareeha was obviously thinking hard about what to say. “You know…”

“I know?” Angela knitted her brows.

“About how we go on.”

“In what sense?”

Fareeha sighed. It couldn’t be that hard to guess what she meant. “I mean in general. This whole situation. Us.”

“Oh, that. Well, my best guess is that we go on just like normal. I will continue being the exchange student _Angela Ziegler_ and visit the university until I can find a way to actually replenish my magic and go home. We don’t have any other choice now, do we?”

“We don’t. And what about us?”

“Us? I don’t know what there is to talk about.” Her lying skills were about on par with Junkrat’s. She quickly turned her attention back to the television.

“The kiss? Does that ring any bells?” Fareeha was getting annoyed. After they had kissed on the bedroom floor they had lain there for the better part of 15 minutes, not saying anything, enjoying the closeness of somebody else. When Angela had dozed off Fareeha had gently placed her in her bed and decided to take a quick shower, which was when the fire alarm went off.

The demon was obviously blushing and doing a terrible job at hiding it.

“Angela,” the blonde slowly looked back at her, still not completely meeting her eyes, “why did you kiss me?”

Angela was getting fidgety, she kept turning the remote in her hands over and over, until she finally took a deep breath and started to talk, “For the same reason why I chose you for the contract.”

“Which is?”

“You’re lonely.” Fareeha had not expected that answer. “Although you have friends who deeply care about you, there is still someone essential who is missing in your life and it’s eating you up. Before I appeared in your living room I did some research on you. You haven’t been sleeping and eating well in the weeks leading up to last Thursday. On Thursday you stayed home, no university, no friends, you barely even left the bed. Your friends picked up on that, that’s why they tried to cheer you up.  And that’s why I thought Saturday would be an easy deal. Back home they always said that sad and lonely people are the best targets as they are almost always too tempted to solve their problems by magic to think about the consequences. I thought I would simply walk in here, get your signature, and that would be it for me. We would have never seen each other again and in ten years your soul would have been painfully dragged to the underworld.

But no, no you have to be different. You have to be so strong and willing to go on in spite of your sadness. You don’t seem to give up when you’re faced with a problem and choose the quick solution, no, you have to be the fucking bigger person and try to solve it although it could potentially take forever.

And you know what? I am so damn thankful for that. I don’t know what I would’ve done if you really threw me out, I am thankful that whatever got you this down and lonely didn’t turn you cold and heartless. I am thankful for giving me a chance.

And in that moment I just had this really stupid idea that maybe I, the demon that has been trying to steal your soul, could maybe be that missing piece in your life, you know? So that you maybe would be a little less lonely. That is why I kissed you.”

Angela was no longer fidgety and uncertain. With every word she spoke she gained more confidence. In the end she was fully facing Fareeha, keeping steady eye contact.

“No.”

“What?” Angela couldn’t believe her ears. She had been certain that a speech like that could win over anybody, had she messed something up? “What do you mean by: No?”

“I mean no, you can’t be the _missing piece in my life._ ” She put those words in quotation marks, “I don’t know what you expected, but if you thought you could somehow be a savior or something then I’m sorry, though shit, but it doesn’t work like that. You wanna know the reason why I was in such a bad mood, huh? It was the anniversary of my mother’s death,” Angela put her hand over her mouth, ”you might get now why I don’t think a demon from some ungodly underworld realm could magically make that circumstance better.”

Now Angela felt like an ass. “I’m sorry, I didn’t know.”

Fareeha let herself fall back into the couch, resting her head on the backrest, and blankly staring towards the ceiling. “It’s alright, how should you have known? It’s not like we only have known each other for about three days, actually more like two days as I once slept for like 30 hours.”

The silence that followed was far less comfortable.

Fareeha sat back up again and sighed. “Listen, I’m not mad at you. You’re apparently new to this and did what you thought was right, I can’t blame you for that, but right now we need to establish what this,” she made a vague gesture between the two of them,” is, and how we go on from here.”

Angela looked down to her hands, where she was playing with the remote, “I understand, I’m sorry. So, roommates?”

Fareeha nodded. “Roommates sounds good.”

 

 

“…and remember, according to all known laws of aviation-“ The professor couldn’t finish his sentence as he was interrupted by the bell hanging in the tower of the main building, signaling the end of the morning lessons. The university grounds used to be a military fort in the 15th to early 16th century, before it was decommissioned and bought by a Spanish noble as summer residency. The property was sold and renovated after it was bought by private investors in 1901. After standing empty for a few years the peninsula of Gibraltar decided to make use of the large grounds and founded the Watchpoint University of Gibraltar. All of the original buildings were still standing, but in recent decades a few more had been added. Fareeha currently was in the most western building on campus, one of the newer ones.

She was quickly packing up her bag and stood up from her seat in the last row, next to her Lena just woke up from her nap, looking around sheepishly.

“Is it over?” The Brit started to stretch her arms and neck.

“Yup, maybe you would know that if you hadn’t slept through the lesson.” Fareeha grinned as the two women made their way out of the lecture hall.

“Yeah, yeah, look I had a rough night.” She started to rub her neck, which was when Fareeha noticed several small purple bruises peeking out from the unusually high collared shirt, a fuck-ugly Hawaiian one with orange flowers on it.

“I can see that. Say, how is Amélie?”

Lena simply tripped on a flat surface.

“Is she really that good?” Fareeha looked at the Brit that was now stumbling to her feet, and smirked.

Lena fixed her collar and started walking again, faster this time. “I have no clue what you are talking about.”

“You must be discussing your lectures if the fast one has no clue.” The Russian-accented voice was followed by two large hands clasping their shoulders.

“Hi Zarya, actually we’ve been talking about Tracer’s-“

“I will show you crush when I crush your windpipe.”

“Oh, how’s Amélie?” Lucio now joined them outside the building, he was accompanied by Angela. As it turned out they had quite a few courses for medicine together, and had quickly become friends.

Lena’s entire head turned red and she decided that quietly sulking was apparently the best course of action.

The five of them made their way towards the cafeteria for an early lunch, laughing and making jokes the entire time. After they all had gotten their trays and chosen their food they sat down at a table in the outside seating area, under a large tree.

Lúcio was the first to talk, although it was through a mouthful of canteen food. “Come on Lena, the cat is out the bag, spill.”

Lena just glared at him, shoving a fork loaded with spaghetti into her mouth. “Hmpf.”

“Both of you eat up first, otherwise you’ll choke on your food.” Angela said, stabbing a tomato in her salad with a fork.

Lena swallowed before she spoke. “First, you’re neither my doctor nor my mum Angie, and second, what I do with Amélie is none of your guys’ business.”

They were all quietly looking at each other.

“So she’s into some kinky shit? I got it, we won’t question you any further.” Fareeha had finished her meal and was now giving Lena a teasing smirk. They all started to laugh.

“Wha… that’s not…. Come on guys that’s not what I meant.” The Brit was redder than the spaghetti sauce surrounding her mouth. “Ugh fine, if you got to know, let me finish first.”

“Yes!” Lúcio pumped his fist triumphantly.

 

 

“Okay, so it all started yesterday evening.” The group of friends was relaxing in the grass outside the medical research building as it was not too far from the cafeteria and Lúcio, Angela, and Zarya all had their next classes here. They were all sitting in a circle and closely listening to Lena.

“I was just chilling in my room after training, when I suddenly got a text from Amélie asking me to come over. I mean, I knew she was direct and all, but how weird is it to send someone you talked to once at a party a text that simply reads _come over_ and her address?”

“So naturally you went?” Angela was raising an eyebrow.

Lena blushed, but nodded. “Yeah I know it was stupid, but I thought it was Amélie.”

“Thought?” Fareeha asked concerned.

“Well, as it turned out Amélie is apparently pretty well off and lives in a house off-campus with a friend of hers. It was also that friend that was throwing a party and that had sent me the text. She said that Amélie was angry at her for the whole party-thing, and that she wanted to make it up to her. You know I can’t say no to a good party-“

“For me it rather seems like you can’t say no to a certain French student.” Lúcio lost it at Zarya’s commentary and fell back into the grass laughing.

“As I said,” Lena simply chose to ignore her friend and continued, “I went inside and actually had a lot of fun. Amélie’s friend, she called herself Sombra,“ Lena shrugged, ”was good company, brought me drinks, introduced me to people and all, but I wasn’t able to spot Amélie anywhere, until Sombra simply came up to me and kissed me. I was shocked at first, but she was hot okay?” Judgmental looks all around. “All right, all right, spare me, it didn’t last long anyway, as Amélie suddenly pulled her off me. Boy let me tell you, I’ve never seen a woman that furious. After that she dragged me to her room, and we… you know.”

“Lena, I think you’re old enough to say fucked.” Fareeha laughed.

“I would never do that, I’m a lady!”

Nobody could keep a straight face at that.

Zarya patted Tracer on the back and talked through the tears in her eyes. “You should thank the Frog for daring you to talk to her last Saturday.”

Lúcio grinned. “Exactly, we shouldn’t forget who helped you get laid. I think I deserve the title of best wingman ever.”

“But wouldn’t that Sombra deserve that title much more?” Angela chimed in.

“Why? Yes, she invited me there, but she also seemed like she wanted to make a move on me. That seems kinda’ counterproductive.”

“Or she tried to make Amélie jealous.” The group looked at Angela like she had just performed a magic trick, well almost everybody did, Fareeha (who had seen her already perform real magic tricks) was simply staring at Angela because she loved the way the light was framing her face, giving her something almost angelic.

Thinking that she had everybody’s attention, unknowing that Fareeha had stopped listening a few minutes ago, she continued talking. “What if Amélie was in as much denial about a crush on Lena as Lena was about Amélie? Think about it, Sombra decided that she would pose as Amélie to get Tracer to the party, and then all she had to do was to make sure that Amélie would see the two of them getting a bit too close for her liking and BAM,” the sudden noise startled Fareeha out of her mental absence, “the trap snaps shut, and Amélie and Lena get it on.”

“How did you even get that idea?” Lúcio looked at her in disbelief. “That would be a brilliant plan, but it has far too many variables, that could have gone wrong on so many levels.”

“It’s just a theory.” Angela defended. “I don’t know this Sombra, but after what Lena has said, I think it’s pretty clear that this was her plan. Maybe she just doesn’t care about collateral damage?”

“Wasn’t all that clear for the rest, your thoughts Pharah?” Zarya turned towards the mentioned woman, who was just about to zone out again.

“I’m sorry, what?” She shook her head and looked at her friends.

“That’s just dandy, I get teased for one little crush, but when the captain zones out staring at her roommate like she’s the light of her life, you guys stay quiet! It’s not fair.” Lena crossed her arms in mocking anger.

Fareeha blushed, but kept her cool and got up. “As much as I would like to hear you complain about you getting laid, I have a class in five minutes that I don’t wish to be late to.”

Her friends followed suit, knowing that afternoon classes were about to start for the most of them, except Lúcio and Angela whose classes started half an hour later.

“Ha, we’re both in that class! You’ll have to listen to me complaining for a wee bit longer.” Lena exclaimed while picking up her bag from the floor.

“Except you’ll fall asleep as soon as the Prof starts talking.” She turned to speak to her friends. “Alright, see you guys later. Angela, I have training today, so try not to get lost on the way home, like you did yesterday, or the day before.”

Angela laughed. “Just shut up and go already.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's another one. Don't worry, this fic isn't dead or anything, I'm just a terrible procrastinator.  
> Thanks for reading.


	6. Chapter 6

Training had been hell. Fareeha enjoyed playing soccer. She was good at it, she met some of her longest friends through it, and it always gave her a sense of accomplishment when she showered off the sweat from her body after a successful match, but today there had been nothing that she hated more.

Coach Morrison had decided, as this was the last practice session before finals and the summer break, that he would go easy on his team and let them, instead of playing a friendly match of soccer, do a three hour long workout cycle for cardio and strength. Fareeha and her teammates logically weren’t very excited about that announcement but all pleas fell on deaf ears, and so it came that practically all of the students who were currently leaving the university’s sports grounds looked and sounded more like zombies than athletes.

“Going easy on us! That was what he said! Why did he do the complete opposite?! That man is a menace!” Lena who usually was full of energy and always skipping three steps ahead, was now barely dragging herself next to Fareeha, who didn’t fare any better.

“You know that the man was in the military for ages, he’d probably tell you that a three hour workout is child’s play compared to war, and so on and so forth.” She took a long swig from her water bottle, then offered the rest to Lena, who swiftly finished the bottle.

The two of them slowly made their way towards the dormitories where Lena was living. A light breeze rustled the leaves of the large trees on the university grounds, many of them as old as this complex itself. Fareeha breathed in the warm evening air, relaxing her aching body.

“I’m gonna have sore muscles all week now, great! That’s gonna suck while studying!” Lena was also slowly regaining her breath, and the two of them picked up a bit of speed while walking. Fareeha simply nodded in agreement as she was getting her phone out of her jeans’ pocket.

The lock screen read: _2 new messages_

**Angela** 17:45

_Got lost on the way back home. Ran into Lúcio and Mei. Currently studying at Lúcio’s dorm._

**Angela** 18:27

_I’m drunk .,;9)_

 

Fareeha looked at the symbols behind the message, frowned, then showed the message to Lena.

“What could that mean?”

Lena chuckled, “She probably tried to do an emoji, but… well, she drunk. Wanna go check on our _studying_ friends and, you know, help them _study_?”

Fareeha grinned, “Why not? I don’t think we would have gotten a lot of studying done anyways today.” She massaged a sore muscle in her arm.

“Booyah! Mid-week drinking here we come!”

 

 

Lúcio’s dorm wasn’t too far away from Lena’s, but where the building Lena and Zarya lived in had just been finished two years ago, Lúcio’s had been built at the turn of the previous century. The old stone building obviously had had many renovations but it also had a certain charm about it, which simply came with the many years it had been standing. They entered through the foyer where many students were using the provided chairs, sofas, and coffee tables to study for their exams, relax, or just have a nice chat. The two women stopped in front of the stairs.

Lena spoke first, “We forgot the stairs.”

“We just finished three hours of Morrison’s torture, how hard can a few more steps be?” Fareeha put on a brave face, this was going to hurt.

Lúcio’s room was in the third floor. They needed 15 minutes to get upstairs. When they finally reached the man’s door both of them were sore again. Lena barely managed to knock on the room’s door. It was Mei who opened.

“Hi guys! We were kind of expecting that you’d come.” Mei stepped to the side to let Fareeha and Lena in.

Lena immediately located Lúcio’s bed and let herself fall down. “I need alcohol. Lucio, beer me!”

“One beer, coming right up, pal.” The Brazilian, who was currently sitting at his, in textbooks and notes covered, desk, quickly grabbed a can of beer from the mini fridge next to his desk and threw it at Lena, who caught it without even looking.

While Lena cracked the can open and took a long swig Fareeha looked Angela, who was lying on the floor on her back with a textbook on her face, she turned to Mei.

“Is she alright.”

“Jus’ dandy.” Angela gave a thumbs up, textbook still on her face. “ ’m learnin’.”

“You see, she’s learning.” Mei gave and innocent grin.

“You’re also drunk?” Fareeha raised an eyebrow.

“Ye.” Mei hiccupped. Fareeha smirked.

“Alright who’s got the booze?” She put down her sports bag and plopped herself on the second bed on the opposite wall of the room. Lúcio’s roommate had dropped out in the middle of the semester and he now had the entire room for himself.

“Kinda’ funny story,” Angela was mumbling from under her book. “We drank it all.”

“Aww come on, and here I was hoping we could get smashed.” Lena now had sat up.

“I’m all for it! The store’s still open, if somebody would go we all could pitch in.” Lúcio finally gave up on his notes and turned around to fully face them. “We just need to draw straws to see who needs to go.”

“I wanna go!” Angela started to scramble to her feet.

“Do you even know where the store is?” Mei was sitting at the second desk.

The blonde looked at her blankly. “No, but I wanna go. Fareeha can show me the way.”

“No.”

Angela turned towards her and pouted.

Fareeha shook her head. “No, I’m not going with you. We’re gonna draw straws. I’m tired, I just had three hours-“

 

 

The lights of the store were almost clinically bright in contrast to the last rays of sunshine that made their way over the horizon. Fareeha slowly trotted in behind a gleeful Angela. The demon immediately went towards the liquor shelf, squealing in delight while looking at the colorful labels. The Egyptian women took a basket from the entrance with her and started to fill it with the items from the list that the group of friends had made.

When she finally caught up with Angela at the alcohol she was still staring at it in deep thought.

“I don’t know any of these.”

Fareeha went to stand beside her. “I figured as much.”

“Can we get something sweet and bubbly, just like me.”

“Sorry they don’t sell bleach in this isle.” Fareeha grabbed two bottles of the cheapest prosecco she could find, and added a six-pack beer and a bottle tequila on top of that, next to her Angela was pouting again.

“I’m just kidding, come on we’ve got everything.” She made her way towards the register, with the demon following close behind. The cashier, a grumpy teenage boy, didn’t give the two women a second look as they bagged their stuff in a plastic bag. Well, Fareeha packed the stuff in the bag, Angela was just drunkenly trying to convince her to buy a chocolate bar.

When the two finally left the bright store the sun had fully gone down. Angela started off leading them back, but Fareeha quickly had to take the lead as she tried to climb over a fence saying that it was a shortcut. After about five minutes of walking the dorm was finally getting into view.

“Fareeha.” Angela now was walking slightly behind her, concentrating on not tripping over her feet.

“Mhm.” The black haired woman hummed.

“Do you hate me?” That stopped Fareeha in her tracks and she turned around with a look of utter confusion.

“Qué?”

“What?”

“That means: What.”

“What means what?”

“Qué.”

“What?”

“Enough!” She was getting annoyed with the drunk demon. “Why should I hate you?”

“Because I ruined your life, and you’re always so mean to me, and…” Angela didn’t finish the sentence, but Fareeha could see that she was starting to tear up.

“Where did you get this idea? You didn’t ruin my life. Okay I admit it, when you first showed up I thought of you as quite the inconvenience and hoped that you’d just leave,” Angela physically winced at that, “but in the last few weeks since you,” some vague gesturing with her free hand, ”you know, appeared, you showed me that you’re not even remotely as bad as I thought. Also, you made quite the impression on my friends, they all like you a lot and I don’t think they will let you go that easy, and neither will I.”

Angela looked like she had calmed down again. Luckily Fareeha had dealt with enough drunk people in her life; crisis averted.

She motioned towards dorm. “Shall we?”

“Only if I can hold your hand.”

“Great idea, that will keep you from getting lost.” The darkness luckily hid her blush.

Angela walked past her, grabbing her free hand. “That only happened once!”

“It already happened more than once today.”

“Ah shush it!” They finished the rest of the walk in peace with Angela’s drunk mumblings as a constant background noise.

 

 

“Finally you’ve returned! We were just about to start a search party.” Lena jumped up from the bed and made a beeline for the beer.

“Quit lying Oxton.” Zarya chimed from one of the beds, where she was playing UNO with Mei and Lúcio.

“Alright, we were just about to start thinking about sending out a search party.” She had already opened the first can.

“That’s still a lie Lena.” Mei said as she played a +4 card, much to the dismay of Lúcio.

“Alright, we thought you two went off banging somewhere, so we called Zarya and she brought vodka. You happy now?” The Brit was already halfway done with her can.

“I am.” Angela smiled, swinging Fareeha’s hand absentmindedly.

Fareeha looked at Angela then her friends, this time there was enough light for everybody to see her blush. She cleared her throat.

“I mean do we just want to stand around like idiots, or get drunk?”

Her friends shared a look.

“We keep the teasing to ourselves for now, as you brought the booze, but don’t think you get off this easy, our time will come.” Lúcio said with a laughter and a wink.

“I bet Angela can get her off easy, and time’s most definitely not the only thing that comes.” Lena mumbled into her now almost empty beer can and they all started laughing, Fareeha punched her in the shoulder, which, due to their sore muscles, hurt them both equally bad.

“Well then, shall we?” Zarya got up and helped move the two beds together, while Lúcio put on one of his famous good mood party playlists, and Mei assisted Fareeha with giving everyone a drink. When they all had a plastic cup with one or another form of alcohol in it they sat on the beds in a circle.

“Here’s to the right way to study!” Lúcio raised his cup towards the middle. Everybody followed suit before they all took a drink. After the Brazilian had put his cup down he decided to ask what his friends’ plans for the break were.

Mei answered first, “I’m leaving for China next Friday to visit my family.”

Zarya visibly deflated at the prospect of her leaving, which Mei noticed. “B-but don’t worry I’ll only be gone for three weeks! The rest of the time I’ll be here.”

Fareeha gave her best to concentrate on the current conversation, she really tried, but as the conversation and the drinking progressed her mind started to shift her attention from her friends towards Angela, who was animatedly taking part in the talking, but due to her drunkenness leaning almost fully against her for support. Whenever the blonde laughed Fareeha’s heart skipped a beat.

“Fuck, I’m too gay for this.” The thought hit her when Angela put a strand of her almost golden blonde hair behind her ear. She would have loved nothing more than just to stare at her for the entire evening, but the universe had different plans for her as a bottle cap hit her temple.

“Earth calling.” Lena said giggling.

“What?” Fareeha was certain that she could hear a silent _qué_ and a giggle from Angela next to her.

“First, UNO?” The Brit held up the card deck, coaxing a groan from Lúcio as he was infamous for his inability to win this game. “Second, what are your plans for the summer?”

Fareeha thought about it while Lena handed out the cards. Her last few summers she spent with Lena. The two of them would waste their days with playing video games, sleeping, drinking, and maybe doing a road trip up North to visit Lena’s parents in London. The problem now was that it no longer was just the two of them, a new variable had been added; Angela.

She finally spoke when she looked at the hand she was dealt. “I don’t have anything planned.”

Tracer grinned. “You also said that last year.” She played the first card, a red 2.

“And luckily you were there to make sure that I wouldn’t bore myself to death.” Fareeha quipped.

It was Lúcio’s turn, but he had to draw a card as he couldn’t play. He quietly cursed in Portuguese.

“What about you Angela? Have any family to go back to?” Lena continued talking, while Fareeha tried to take her turn. The question registered with her after she had played her card. A cold chill went down her spine. Although she and Mercy had talked about what Angela’s backstory could be, they never got far enough to discuss what her family status should be. With a supple panic she looked to the demon next to her; she could see the gears turning inside Angela’s head.

“My Family? Uh….they…uh” She was trying really hard to think, but the alcohol was doing its best to work against that. Then - an epiphany. “No, they are all dead.” She stated in a cheerful voice, obviously proud with her solution, obviously unaware of the weight of what she just had said. Everybody else just stared at her in shock, including the Egyptian. Angela played a +2.

The Brit regained composure first. “I am so sorry, I didn’t mean to…. I’m sorry.” She hung her head in embarrassment and shame.

“If you ever need to talk about it, know that we’re always here for you.” Mei put a reassuring hand on the blonde’s shoulder, before playing another +2 card. Zarya simply nodded in agreement, also playing a +2, but nobody was really focused on the game at the moment.

“It’s alright.” Mercy tried to diffuse the situation, giving Fareeha a pleading look for help. “I…”

“Hey, it’s a though topic, how about we talk about it some other time, yeah?” Fareeha looked to the group with asking eyes, they all agreed, a small sigh of relief from Angela. Lena apologized one last time as she too played a +2.

“Oh come on! You got to be fucking kidding me! Are you all fucking with me?!” It was Lúcio’s turn and to his dismay he had to draw eight cards. They all started laughing, successfully breaking the tension.

“Oi, but the reason I originally asked you was if you have nothing to do during the break, you could join me and Pharah this summer, you know, doing shit, having fun, being young. The whole program.” Lena said while taking her third beer from the shopping bag.

“Wouldn’t I intrude in anything?” Angela seemed hesitant.

Fareeha backed the Brit up.  “Don’t be ridiculous, it’ll be fun.”

“I mean I could….”

“Then it’s a deal! Believe me, this will be a summer that none of us will forget!”

Lúcio stared at the now 16 cards in his hand. “That is only if any of us actually can remember anything.”

“Only if you’re a lightweight.” Zarya stated, she was now sitting way closer to Mei than when they had started playing.

“I’ll show you lightweight! Tracer, bring me the shot glasses!” He had stood up, officially ending the game of UNO, which he would have lost anyway.

Zarya also rose up. “Bring it, small man.”

Fareeha sighed. “Here we go again.”

 

 

Why did her door suddenly have so many keyholes? She remember she had one for the deadbolt and one for the actual lock, but right now there were roughly between three and six keyholes shimmering on the outside of her apartment’s door, and the drunk woman who was using her as support did not help either.

“What is takin’ so long?” Angela whined. “I need to pee.”

“Jus’ hold on a sec.” Fareeha kept herself barely from simply falling nose first into the still locked door. It took her another good minute before finally there were two successive clicks, and the door opened. Angela immediately stormed past her and into the bathroom.  Fareeha went into the kitchen and took two glasses out of the cupboard. When she had filled them both with water she waited in front of the bathroom door on her roommate. When the door finally opened a pretty tired looking Angela stepped out, her pants lying next to the toilet, obviously discarded in the rush.

“Being a human sucks.” She took both glasses and chugged them down. “You have to take care of so many thing to not die. Stressful.” She then proceeded to drag her way to the bedroom.

“You’re welcome.” Fareeha murmured looking at her empty glass.

When she too stepped into the bedroom after refilling the water, she was greeted by sight of Angela already nestled into her blanket on her side, she was looking at her expectantly.

“You comin’?” The demon said in a tiny voice, making grabby-hands at her.

A small chuckle escaped Fareeha as she placed the glasses on her night stand. After several failed attempts to solve the sleeping situation in the small apartment, including an air mattress, sleeping on the uncomfortable couch, et cetera, they had come to the agreement that Fareeha’s king size bed was big enough for the two of them. It was slightly awkward at first, but after just two nights both of them had gotten used to the other’s sleeping form, although Angela still complained about the snoring sometimes.

“Chill. I’m not gonna sleep in my street clothes and I still need to brush my teeth.” The Egyptian grabbed her pajamas and quickly headed back to the bathroom.

Inside it was her turn to plop down on the toilet to get rid of all the excess liquid. Getting into her sleeping clothes presented a far greater challenge as anticipated, Fareeha had quite a few problems keeping her balance while taking her socks off when the room had the audacity to start spinning. She threw her day’s clothes into the laundry basket, did a few sloppy strokes with her toothbrush, and then finally decided that it was time for bed. After checking if the front door had been locked she quietly stepped into the dark bedroom.

There was a small shuffle. “You finally done?”

“Mhm.” Fareeha went to her side of the bed and, with a sigh of relief, slid under her blanket. Just as she was about to close her eyes she felt the body next to her move closer. Before she could ask had Angela already cuddled up to her, pulling her close. Wrapping her arm around the demon, so that she wouldn’t lie on it Fareeha had to smile, but there was still one question on her mind.

“Hey, can I ask you something?”

“Huh? Wazzit?” Angela lifted her head to look at her in the dark, her outline barely visible.

“Do you have any family?”

There was silence.

“Like, back home?”

“Yes.”

Angela dropped her head so it rested on Fareeha’s chest. She closed her eyes, listening to the steady rhythm of the other woman’s heart. “Demons aren’t really family types. I do have parents but where I come from that connection is irrelevant. No one will come for me. I messed up and I have to deal with the consequences, although, right at this moment, I wouldn’t say that I feel like I failed.” A content smile grew on her face.

Fareeha didn’t know how to respond to that, so she simply started to play with Angela’s hair as it was soft.

“One last thing: You know this is gonna be an awkward position for both of us to wake up to.”

“Shut up. I don’t care.” The last words where so quiet that Fareeha had to strain her ears to understand the now softly snoring demon.

She whispered a quiet goodnight, and then let the rhythmic breathing of Angela guide her too to sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! This fic is not dead, and won't be for a while. It just updates slowly because of who I am as a person. 
> 
> Also I just want to say that I am blown away by the reception of this story and every comment makes me so fucking happy.  
> Thank you!
> 
>  
> 
> (P.S: I mean the European third floor, that's the fourth floor for Americans.)


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yay, another chapter!

[PAST]

_The dirty soldier was sprinting through the ruins like a madman, ragged breaths and hasted steps being the only sounds to be heard, franticly pointing his rifle into every opening and doorway, searching for his opponent. Unbeknownst to him, the enemy he was looking for was just across the street, quietly laying still and carefully training the heavy sniper rifle against their shoulder. One slow breath, two; the shot rippled through the air, catching the soldier off guard, and tearing an ugly large hole in the place where his face used to be._

The chat was going wild. That had been her 25th kill, with a smug grin she activates her kill streak. She was sure that her opponent was currently raging behind his screen and blaming everything, every deity, every technical flaw they could think of except their terrible gameplay, for the tactical nuke that was currently inbound and decided the match. The winner for the 17th time in a row: D.VA.

“GG, scrublord. Maybe learn the game next time.” The young Korean girl leaned back in her comfortable, highly expensive, and comically large gaming chair, a smug grin plastering her face. She tuned to her recording webcam to speak. “That’s number 17 folks! If anyone else wants to try to 1v1 me in a game of their choice they can most certainly try! Donations start at one dollar for entering the draft, if you can beat me you get one half the currently 12,001 dollar in pot and the other half is donated to charity, but if I stay undefeated, I will use the part of money that I don’t donate to start the funding of a 10 meter tall statu….!”

She didn’t get to finish her ramblings of megalomania, as she was interrupted by the ringing of a phone. Her head snapped away from the screen to find the offending device. She was sure that she had switched off her phone before she started the stream, she was a professional after all. Brown eyes scanned every inch of her small unlit bedroom, the ringing still consistent. As the noise continued D.VA started to notice something strange; this wasn’t even her ringtone. Instead of her usual choice of music, which indicated an incoming call for her, this was the blandest, most boring sounding ringing, she had heard in a long while. In the back of her mind something shifted, it clicked.

Her eyes went wide when she finally found the source of the ringing. There on her nightstand on the opposite wall of the room, laid a phone. Unlike hers, the latest model smartphone from a sponsorship deal, this one looked to be good over 15 years old. Its case was made from a milky gray plastic, and the screen only had two colors, black and green, but she knew that the model of phone that this one was based on could withstand practically anything and the battery could last for weeks, she also knew who was calling.

In one quick motion she turned back to her audience. “I’m really sorry! Got to go!” As soon as she had uttered the words the stream was shut down, and she practically hurled herself across the room to pick up.

“Agent Song awaiting orders!” She caught herself from saluting to an empty room.

“Finally, you picked up.” The voice on the other end was monotonous, almost bored sounding.

“In my defense, I was promised some off-time.” She started to walk around her room, picking up random clothes off the floor, and throwing them without looking into the laundry bin, nailing every shot.

“In your defense?” This had agitated the voice, although only slightly, and to anyone else it would have probably still sounded the same, but D.VA noticed. “Agent Song, this _off-time_ you speak of was never sanctioned by the administration. After your last mission you simply left off saying you’re just going to _chill_ _for a while_ , THAT WAS 15 FUCKING YEARS AGO YOU-“ D.VA had to hold the speaker further away from her ear to not go deaf.

“Okay, no, this is not the time for this.” The voice apparently was trying to find its composure again. “Listen, there is a job we need you to do, as you are the only one we can expend at the moment.”

“Sounds promising, go on.” She sighed.

“I would have continued talking anyways.” D.VA rolled with her eyes. “The target arrived on earth last Saturday on a peninsula called Gibraltar, and was to complete one simple standard contract. So far she neither has returned nor do we have any kind of progress report on the contract. In fact we have lost all contact with her.”

“And you want me to do what exactly, you know that I’m not just some babysitter for demons who suck at their job and get lost in the human world.”

“We do not wish for you to babysit her, we want you to find out why she is taking so long, and if she has gone rogue the administration would wish for you to eliminate her.”

D.VA now had pulled away the curtains on her window, letting in the evening sun mixed with the already buzzing lights of Busan, she looked back at her room.

“Okay, but I need to know two more things,” She went over to her bed, pulling out a pink suitcase and a black box from under it. “What’s the name and where exactly is she?” She now held the phone between her left ear and shoulder as she first packed the box into the suitcase, and then started to collect her essentials.

“The name of your target is Mercy. As for the location, I am sorry to tell you the guy who usually does that is on vacation.” The silent grin could be heard all the way to D.VA’s side of the phone.

“Why does Clint get vacation days but not me?!” But the line was already dead, actually the entire phone had just vanished.

D.VA sighed, looking at the black box which now was securely nestled between random socks and shirts.

“Well then Mercy, let’s get this show on the road.”

 

 

[PRESENT TIME]

“Oh yeah baby! Summer here we go!” Lúcio was practically bouncing next to Angela, as the two of them were walking to Fareeha’s apartment after finishing their last exam for the semester. “No tests, no assignments, no early classes, no nothing for three whole months! I can’t wait to relax at the beach, or maybe party, or maybe make some music, or maybe meet the love of my life,” He winked at somebody they passed, only getting a “nope” in return. He turned back to the woman next to him. “The possibilities are endless!”

Angela chuckled. “If you say so.” They were walking along the seaside promenade of the town, the same one where Fareeha and she had gone when she first arrived in this realm. She had been here many times since then, on her way to the university, with Fareeha when they went grocery shopping, or with her new friends when they would pre-game at the beach. The promenade was buzzing with life, families, students, young, and old, everybody seemed to want to enjoy the sun and warm temperatures as much as possible. There was a cool breeze carrying in the smell of salt, and the screams of seagulls from the ocean, and the water was bustling with activity.

The two friends were walking and chatting about this and that for a bit before Lúcio suddenly stopped. It took a second for Angela to register that her friend was no longer next to her. When she turned around to look why he stopped, she saw it.

They both just stood there looking at the brightly colored vehicle blaring an annoying repetitive jingle. Currently it was surrounded by a large crowd of parents trying to sate the infinite hunger for sweets of their screaming young, while maybe also getting a refreshment for themselves. All in all the ice cream truck looked like a very concentrated spot of anarchy in the middle of an otherwise peaceful scene.

“We’re grown-ups.”  Angela stated.

“Yup.”

“We go to university to become doctors and save lives.”

“Yup.”

“We don’t need something as unhealthy as ice cream right?”

But Lúcio was already trying to get to the front of the line, giving his best attempt to shout his order louder than the rest of the crowd.

 

When the two of them finally turned into the street that Angela’s apartment building was on, finishing up the last remains of their ice cream, they were greeted by a most unusual sight. There, in front of the building owned by the infamous Jamison “Junkrat” Fawkes, known for his inability to keep a tenant, stood a moving truck, and two men in overalls were currently carrying a sofa inside the building. Next to the truck were standing three figures, the two owners of the building looking as dirty and scrappy as ever, and Fareeha in a loose muscle tank top and training shorts, seemingly just returning from a run.

Now, Mercy had gotten quite good a using and interpreting her new human body’s functions in a very short time, yet she still sometimes struggled with some of the signals it tried to convey to her. For example right now, there was a weird feeling in her stomach region when she looked at Fareeha, and although she tried researching what it could mean, neither her books on medicine nor googling _stomach cancer whenever roommate is near_ have brought her any clear results on what her body was trying to convey. She had asked Lúcio about it one time too, while they were studying, but he simply laughed so hard that he fell off the bed, not ever giving her an answer.

“Yo, cap what’s up?” Lúcio approached the Egyptian from behind.

“Hi.” Angela followed, mostly mumbling into the last bits of her frozen treat.

 Fareeha turned around with a grin. “ ’Sup dudes. How was the test?”

Both groaned. Angela responded. “Just please stop talking about tests, or school, or anything of studying related, it was hell.”

The dark skinned woman laughed at that response. She was just about to retort when their attention was drawn to a bright pink Smart drifting around the corner with a loud screech, closing the distance between them at breakneck speed, and coming to a smoking stop just a few meters away from the now visibly frightened three students, and two unshaken landlords, who probably had far worse near death experiences involving the explosive habit of the lankier one of them. Out of the small pink hell bullet of a car a short Korean girl emerged. She was wearing old worn sneaker, hot pants, a loose white shirt with some kind of bunny design, and a pair of large aviators.

“Okay before anybody speaks,” she turned towards Lúcio, “please tell me you just got a really deep voice on the phone and those two are just random hobos passing by.” She motioned towards Junkrat and Roadhog.

The three friends just gave her an apologetic look.

Junkrat, who apparently didn’t notice the insult or didn’t even see it as one, had a wide grin on his face. “What an entrance! I like her already Mako.” He then stepped forward, offering the girl a handshake, which she only reluctantly accepted due to the amounts of oil on it. “You must be Miss Song, I’m Jami, but everybody calls me Junkrat,” an understanding nod from D.VA, “and that here is my buddy Roadhog, you two talked on the phone.” The large man simply gave a short grunt. “We’re the landlords of this fine housing establishment, and we hope you will find everything to your satisfaction, shall we go inside my office to discuss the details?”

D.VA raised an eyebrow. “You have an office?”

Junkrat hadn’t even waited for her to answer, and was talking while already making his way back towards the garage. “Technically it is Roadie’s office as I sorta’ blew mine up, long story.”

The girl gave the three friends a look that was a mixture of questioning and slight terror, but she eventually decided to follow the Australian.

“I say she lasts three weeks.” Lúcio stated.

“Never, I bet she’ll be out of here by next Wednesday.” Fareeha chuckled. She remembered her first meeting with the landlords, it went about as well as one could expect.

“One week.” Roadhog said walking past them back to his shop, seemingly haven gotten bored in the sun.

Lúcio looked after him. “Does everything he says sound like a murder threat?”

“Yes.” His friends answered in unison.

“Can we now please go inside? It’s really hot.” Angela complained. Normally heat wouldn’t be a problem for her, but that was in her demon form, her human body sadly, was far more susceptible to the elements, which she did not like one bit.

“Yes please, I’m in serious need of a shower.” Fareeha seconded her suggestion.

“Alright ladies, that’s my cue to leave. I wouldn’t want to intrude on you shower time,” He winked at Angela, who tried to best to hide her blush. “But you two are still game for the BBQ later, right? I heard Lena even invited Amélie.”

“You know I wouldn’t miss that for the world.” Fareeha said with a smug grin on her face.

The friends said their goodbyes, and after Lúcio had made himself on his way, the two women climbed their way up the stairs to their apartment. They passed the two movers in the stairway, as they were carrying a 79 inch flat screen into the apartment opposite from Fareeha’s, but didn’t pay them any closer attention, with their goal being only to get into their air-conditioned living quarters.

Finally inside Fareeha made a beeline to the shower, and Angela simply plopped down on the couch, deciding that a nap should be in order. She had gotten good 15 minutes of rest when she heard the bathroom door unlock and her roommate step outside.

“The BBQ starts at five, wanna do something ‘til then?” Fareeha talked while walking into the bedroom, her voice muffled by the towel she uses to dry her hair.

“You.”

Fareeha’s world froze, her heartbeat all of sudden pounding in her ears. She turned around to face the demon, unsure what to expect.

“Did you hear that? I said: Not really. You?” Angela’s head was poking out from behind the sofa’s backrest, her hair, usually in a ponytail, was now falling free on both sides of her face, framing it like a waterfall of gold.

Her heartbeat normalized, at least a little bit, Angela with her hair down was a completely other story. “Oh. Okay then.” She tried her best to not let the small tinge of disappointment in her voice be heard, as she continued to dress herself.

“Did you want to do something?”

“I mean, we could hav-“ She got interrupted by three sharp knocks on the door.

Angela hauled herself up from her horizontal position, and sighed. “I’ll get it.”

She crossed the living room in a few quick strides, making her way towards the door. When she opened it she was greeted by a giant gift basket that was basically shoved in her face.

“Hi! I wanted to officially introduce myself, and see who my wonderful future neighbors are.” Behind the monstrosity of plastic wrappers, muffins, and other unhealthy sweets, the Korean girl from before emerged, a wide friendly smile on her face. “I’m Hana.”

She put out her hand, but only got a blank stare from the woman in the doorway, as she currently was holding about 4 kilograms worth of gift basket. “Wanna come in, so I can put this down?”

“That seem clever, doesn’t it?” Hana said with a chuckle, noticing her mistake.

Angela turned around, walking back into the living room in search of a free space to put the basket. Hana saw that as an invitation to step inside the apartment.

“Who was it?” Fareeha also entered the living room, now properly clothed. She stopped when she saw the guest.

“I’m Hana.” She extended her hand again. “I’m looking forward to being your neighbor.”

Fareeha shook it with a smile. “I’m Fareeha, and that is my roommate Angela.” She nodded towards the mentioned woman, who just had given up finding the right spot and simply balanced the basket on top of a pile of pizza boxes.

“Hi.”

“ ’Sup.”

Fareeha stepped past the shorter girl, towards the kitchen. “Want something to drink? Water, or maybe some juice?”

“Got any energy drinks?”

Angela twitched at the mention of these terrifying beverages, flashbacks to her first week on earth started playing in her mind. In her defense, neither Fareeha nor Mercy could have known that demons can’t handle that much caffeine.

The demon could see that Fareeha was also remembering. “Sadly, no.”

“Well, then I’ll just have a water please.”

“So what brings you here?” Fareeha asked while pouring water in a clean glass.

Hana happily accepted the water and answered after taking a sip. “I’m a trans-dimensional killer who’s here because apparently there’s a demon on the loose.”

The apartment fell silent. Angela was frozen in fear, but luckily currently out of the field of view of Hana, as panic was written in her face. Fortunately Fareeha’s poker face was better, as the tension was quickly resolved as Hana started to laugh hysterically.

“Oh wow, you should have seen your faces!” She had real trouble to stay on her feet. “One could have thought that you actually have seen a demon.”

The other two women chuckled nervously.

“No jk. I’m actually just a streamer who needed a change of pace, you know? Somewhere new to explore, with new things to see, maybe even begin university.”

Angela sat down on the sofa quietly sighing in relief, while Fareeha started to talk again.

“You’re really a streamer?”

“Ay.”

“Doesn’t that mean you sit in front a screen the entire day playing video games, while other people watch?”

“Yes. Your point?”

“That sounds awesome.” The Egyptian had an expression of genuine awe on her face.

The three women continued chatting for the better part of the afternoon, and while Fareeha seemed to already having forgotten the, as Hana explained, “well-meant joke”, it only had made Angela more wary of their new neighbor. To her dismay her roommate seemed to be genuinely interested in Hana’s job, who in return wanted to know everything about the town and the landlords, so the two of them continued talking until they had to get ready for the BBQ with their friends.

“She seems nice, doesn’t she?” Fareeha turned to Angela after locking the door behind Hana.

“I don’t trust her.” The demon flatly stated, crossing her arms.

“To be fair, you thought Zarya would try to exorcise you.” She walked past the blonde towards the bedroom.

Angela followed her as she too had to get changed. “Okay, but that was because I misunderstood _exercise._ That can happen to anybody.” A raised eyebrow from Fareeha. “But this, this was far too precise to be a simple joke. What if she knows? What if she’s here for me?” I…I..”

Fareeha gently put her hands on Angela’s shoulders. “Calm down, I’m sure it was a simple coincidence. And even if not, don’t worry I’ll protect you.”

That made Angela smile, humans truly thought they could handle anything themselves, even forces far beyond their understanding, Mercy had always admired that. “Thank you.” She hugged Fareeha, who awkwardly hugged her back, trying the best to ignore the butterflies in her stomach.

“No problem.” They just stood there, reveling in the closeness of each other, the only sounds being the slow and steady rhythm of their breathing.

Angela suddenly let go. “Fuck, we’re late!”

Fareeha followed her eyes to the radio clock on her nightstand. “Shit.”

Within record time the two women got themselves ready dressed for the evening, and just five minutes later they were out the door and on their way, practically sprinting down the flights of stairs.

As soon as the front door slammed shut, another door in the house opened, it was Hana’s door. She had been watching the entire time through the spyhole in her door, just waiting for them to finally leave. Now she was standing in front of Fareeha’s locked door, silently talking to herself while fiddling with the doorknob.

“I honestly hope that you two are clean,” a small sigil began to glow in the air above the lock and a faint _click_ could be heard, “you’re too nice to house a demon.” She entered the now empty apartment, looking around for a place to start her investigations.

“But still, a job is a job, and no one should say that I’m not thorough.” She rubbed her hands together. “What’s up everybody, it’s D.VA. Let’s do this shit.”


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A bit longer than usual. But honestly, who's gonna complain about that?
> 
>  
> 
> P.S.: Also if you find any mistakes please notice me because I wanna give my readers the best possible reading expirience.  
> P.P.S.: If you're enjoying the story so far maybe think about leaving a comment. ^^

“No.” It was a simple statement, leaving no room for discussion.

Lúcio pouted. “Awww, come on Zarya, they’re really tasty.” The Brazilian was waving the eggplant in front of the pink-haired Russian’s face.

“I say it again, I’m in charge of the grill, so no vegetables.” She crossed her muscular arms.

Lúcio threw a pleading look to Lena, who was relaxing in a lawn chair with a beer in hand. “Can’t you help me, at least a little bit?”

The Brit lifted her aviators from her nose, looking first at him then the Russian. “Aubergines are disgusting.” A victorious smirk from Zarya. “But I’m not sure if Amélie or Sombra are vegetarians, so we should make sure that there are enough choices for everyone.”

Lúcio hollered in triumph.

Zarya grabbed the eggplant, squinting at the vile growth. “If that thing touches the meat, I will crush it.”

Her friends suddenly got flashbacks to last Halloween and the pumpkin incident, both gave understanding nods.

With the vegetable situation resolved Lúcio walked to another lawn chair next to Lena, also grabbing a beer from the cooler as he passed it. When he let himself fall into the seat he let out a sigh. He closed his eyes, soaking in the early evening sun, which was slowly making its way towards the horizon, drowning the ocean and scenery in warm gold and orange. The friends were currently at the summer residence of the Zhou family. Mei’s parents, as they didn’t really used the house that much, were generous enough to let Lúcio and Zarya stay during the summer holidays so neither of them would need to spend a lot of money for traveling home and then returning when university started back up again. The two story house was located on top of a small cliff with a staircase down to the beach. The friends were currently grilling on the backyard lawn, well, Zarya was preparing the fire while Lena and Lúcio were chatting.

“Thanks again that you guys are alright with Amélie bringing her friend along.” Lena said before taking another sip.

“Nah, it’s no big deal. As I always say: The more, the merrier. Also, from what you’ve been telling she sounds like fun.” Lúcio responded, also taking a sip.

“Da. I’m also looking forward to finally meeting Amélie. Took you long enough to introduce her to us.” Zarya chimed from the grill.

“I just had to make sure she was ready for all of you.” Lena laughed.

“Nothing can prepare her for me. I simple the grea-“ Lúcio was interrupted by the faint sound of the doorbell. Within a second Lena was up and already halfway to the backdoor.

“I’ll get it.”

Zarya and Lúcio shared a look, and then started to laugh hysterically.

Meanwhile, the Brit had already crossed the house and practically tore the front door open, much to the surprise of Fareeha and Angela.

“I know we’re late, but I didn’t expect you waiting for us so desperately.”  Fareeha quipped as she hugged Lena.

“That’s very funny.” The shorter woman rolled with her eyes.

“She was obviously waiting for a certain French beauty, weren’t you?” Angela said with an innocent tone.

Lena blushed, but still smiled at her friends. “I just didn’t expect Captain Punctual to be late. You two should learn the definition of _quickie_.”

“You know that not everybody is a one-minute-woman like you, right?”

Fareeha burst out laughing at the blonde’s retort.

The Brit just made a fake gasp and started leading them towards the backyard. “It’s good to know that the two of you just came over so that you could make fun of me.”

“Always.”

“Why else should we be here?”

The three of the left the house under cheerful taunting, and with wide grins on their faces.

When Lúcio noticed the new arrivals he sprung up from his seat, careful not to spill his beer. “Well, well, well…. I know I said I wouldn’t want to intrude on your shower time, but maybe that would have helped you two to be punctual?”

Fareeha chuckled. “Oh please, if you wouldn’t be staying here for the time being you’d be an hour _fashionably_ late.”

The Brazilian shrugged, then clasped his hands. “True. Shall we start the celebrations?”

Angela perked up at that. “Oh, if that means booze I’m game.”

Lena was already head first into the cooler at the word booze. “Now that is what I like to hear.” She pulled out a beer for Fareeha, and a no-brand vodka lemon for Angela. “I think that this deserves a toast.”

“I thought we were grilling?”

Lena sighed. “Very funny Angi.” The only one to laugh at Angela’s joke was Fareeha. “First of all. To the Zhou family for allowing our friends to stay.” All of her friends raised their glasses. “And, to another successful year in which we drunkly bullshitted our way through university.” Her friends raised their glasses higher and let out a small cheer. “And to…” Lena got interrupted by the doorbell, and was gone faster than EpiPens at the annual Convention for Beekeepers that are allergic to bees.

“I wish she’d show this much enthusiasm during games.” Fareeha said as she walked over to Zarya, something apparently had caught her attention. “Yo, no offense, but what the fuck is that thing doing next to the meat?” She was pointing at the eggplant.

Lúcio sagged his shoulders. “Aw come on! Not you too.”

The two women at the grill started to laugh.

 

When Lena returned she was followed by her “don’t-you-dare-to-call-her-her-girlfriend”- girlfriend Amélie and another woman, the friends collectively guessed that that had to be Sombra.

“Hello.” Amélie simply stated, looking at the group. She was wearing a simple summer dress and a large sun hat. Her entire outfit, although not extravagant or unfitting for the occasion, seemed expensive and like it was made by some exclusive designer with a nearly unpronounceable name. She looked a little bit out of place next to Lena, whose worn casual clothes and giddy personality seemed like the exact opposite of everything that Amélie represented.

“Hi.” Sombra stepped out behind her friend, and gave them all a small wave, before looking at their food selection, then Zarya, then Zarya’s bicep. Angela believed to see a devious smirk forming on her face, but nobody else seemed to notice.

While Lena went to get some more chairs for them, Amélie decided to seat herself in the Brit’s former place. She continued to pull two bottles of wine from her designer bag.

“Do you have somewhere I can put this?” She spoke with a hint of a French accent, her voice emitting a certain kind of calmness and control.

Fareeha got up, having already finished her beer. “Yes, give them here and I’ll put them away.” Amélie handed her one of the two bottles. “What’s with the other one?”

“I came here to drink, non?”

“Ohhhh, I like her!” Lúcio chimed, handing her a cup.

Fareeha looked at the man, speaking in a mocking tone. “You like everybody that shares your alcoholism.”

Lúcio response was more laughter and taking a sip from his vodka-juice-mix.

When Fareeha had left and her cup was filled, Amélie turned to the blonde one seat over. “So you must be Angela.”

“Yup, Lena told us a lot about you.”

Lúcio leaned forward. “I wouldn’t call it telling as much as talking about how perfect your ass looks, even after we told her to stop three times already.”

The French woman laughed at that comment. Somewhere in the background Lena could be heard tripping over nothing, and Fareeha was heard shouting _gaaaaaayyyyy_ at her. The two friends then continued cursing at each other until they, the extra chairs, and more drinks arrived at the rest of the group. When they were seated Fareeha turned towards Zarya, who was currently chatting with Sombra by the grill.

“How’s the fire looking?”

“Terrible, says its eyes burn.”

“I meant when’s the food ready?”

“Depends on how fast it can apply make-up.”

“One more pun and I’ll…”

“You what? I can bench more than you.”

Fareeha looked at Angela knowing that Zarya’s got a point. She grinned.

“Or I’ll show Mei the pictures of the first Halloween we celebrated as a group.”

Angela heard shocked gasps from Lúcio and Lena.

“You will do no such thing. The food’s ready in 20 minutes.”

The Egyptian leaned back in her chair, smirking triumphantly, when she noticed Angela’s asking eyes. Actually, first she noticed how incredibly beautifully blue they were. They reminded her of the first glimpse of sky after a heavy storm. They were as blue as the tropical sea, a sea she just would love to drown… She got interrupted by Angela snipping in front of her face.

“What?” She was confused by being torn so suddenly out of her dream.

“When you’re done being gay, I asked what happened the first Halloween you celebrated as a group.” The blonde had a teasing tone, and wore a smile more beautiful than… Again snipping.

“No, no, no, before you go under again, answer me first.”

Fareeha blushed. “Sorry, but I can’t tell you that. We kinda’ made a pact.”

“Yeah, but believe me it was a wild night.” One way to find out how much Lúcio had to drink was to look at how much he was talking with his hands, and he was already starting gesture quite freely.

Amélie also had perked up, the conversation seemingly interesting her, although her face wouldn’t betray that, ever. She nuzzled into Lena, who had placed her lawn chair right next to Amélie’s.

“Cherie, you can’t just set up a good story and then not tell it. That is rude.”

Lena was slowly growing closer and closer to the color of a tomato with every casual touch of her obviously-not-girlfriend.

“Sorry love, all I’m allowed to tell you is that it involved a zoo, 30 liters of slushy, a high Elvis impersonator, and the legendary guitarist Slash.”

Angela, Amélie, and even Sombra, who currently was far more captivated by a pink haired Russian, perked an eyebrow.

Angela pouted. “Really? Can’t you tell me anything?” She no was leaning far closer to Fareeha than before.

Fareeha swallowed hard. “You need to be a higher level of friend to unlock that story.”

At that answer Angela scoffed and stood up, going to get herself another drink. “Nerd.”

“Hey! That deeply hurt my feelings.”

 Angela didn’t even turn around to answer. “Yeah I’m sure of that.”

Fareeha looked around. All of her friends seemed to be enjoying themselves. Everybody wore a smile on their face, and had alcohol in their cups. She turned to Lena.

“Hey, you still up for planning the route for the trip tomorrow?”

Lena looked at her, her cup filled to the brim with vodka orange, and then Amélie. “Yeah, but could we do that at, like you know, 5 in the afternoon instead of 10 a.m.? I’d highly appreciate that.”

“You’re right. But just a reminder, you suggested doing it that early.”

“Yeah, and I admit that past- Lena is an idiot.”

“Present-Lena is no difference then.” Lúcio could be heard over the brim of his cup.

“Oh come here you little-“

Their banter continued over the course of the entire evening, but never was unwelcome. Something that Angela had figured out early in her time hanging out with her new friends was that they barley meant insults as something rude. Almost any time someone was called _asshole_ or _fucker_ or _slimy piece of shit eating nugget sucker_ it was done with a smile on their face, and accompanied with a laugh. At the dinner table the friends exchanged stories of the past school year, of times they went out drinking, and of generally fun stuff that happened in their lives. Angela enjoyed it greatly being around these people, they always managed to put a smile on her face.

To Fareeha’s great luck was Angela too captivated by one of Lúcio’s stories of freelance DJ-ing to notice her starring at exactly that, almost angelic, smile.

“How the fuck am I supposed to stay just roommates with her?” The Egyptian’s brain was running on overtime. “I could make a move when we’re both drunk. Would that be wrong? It sounds wrong. It is wrong. I shouldn’t do that. Bad idea. But what if she makes a move? I guess then it’s a sign. Truly inevitable. Nope, I wouldn’t be able to do anything about it. But what if she then feels bad? What should-“ She got hit in the face by a slice of eggplant.

“-and that is what I think of your vile plant.” Zarya finished the sentence.

“First of all, I can’t believe you did this.” The feign hurt in Fareeha’s voice made Angela, who, this far into the BBQ, was already on the brim of very drunk, giggle. “Second of all, I hate this stuff as much as you do, so don’t throw it at me.” She flicked the slice at Lúcio. “But at him.”

The entire table, everybody having had their fair share of drink, ruptured in laughter.

They continued their meal with several conversations at the same time, and when they were done eating they gathered around the fire place in the garden and wouldn’t even let the rise of the moon stop their fun.

At around three a.m., Amélie and Sombra having already left, as Amélie had a flight to catch in the morning and Sombra was tired and drunk, and Zarya and Angela snoring peacefully in their respective chairs, Lena, Fareeha, and Lúcio were the last few people awake. All three of them very shitfaced.

“I think it’s time.” Lúcio spoke as he got up onto unsteady feet.

“Turning in for the night, frogman?”  Lena slurred her words.

“Jope.” With a heavy THUD the Brazilian let himself fall face first into the soft grass, and immediately started snoring.

The Brit looked at Fareeha. “You also gonna stay here or want me to holla you a cap?”

“A ride home would be amazing, if you-“ She stopped talking when she noticed that Lena too had succumb to her drowsiness.

With a drunk chuckle Fareeha pulled out her phone, and started searching for the taxi company’s number in her contacts.

 

 

Hana knew that she messed up. There were three rooms: a bedroom, a larger living room with a kitchen area behind a short wall, and a bathroom. She also knew that she could have had searched the entire apartment within an hour, but she hadn’t. Now it was ten past three in the morning and she just had started on the living room. To be fair, she was done searching the bedroom after twenty minutes after entering Fareeha’s apartment, and besides a really really well hidden blue sex toy she couldn’t find anything interesting. She had been well on schedule when the Twitter notification had popped up. At first Hana had tried to ignore it, but her curiosity had gotten the better of her. It was only several hours later, and about 2417 Tweets down the thread, that she had noticed her mistake, and had frantically jumped up from the couch.

“Come on, come on,” The Korean girl was currently shoulder deep under the sofa, trying to feel for any incriminating details. “Please, either find something or nothing, I don’t care, but it has to be fast.”

She was just about to give up when her fingers brushed against something soft.

“Please don’t be a rat. Please don’t be a rat. Please don’t be a rat.” D.VA pulled. It felt like fabric, and had some weight to it. “Probably just an old t-shirt.” With a sigh she pulled the thing the rest of the way out, and held it up against the light, only to find…

“Nothing?” Now she was confused. She was sure she had felt something, actually she was still feeling like she was holding something in her hand. The material had the texture of a fine suit, but was completely invisible. That could only mean one thing.

All of a sudden the door opened and two figures stumbled in, obviously drunk. They both stopped in shock. Hana yelped.

“What are you doing here?” Fareeha was too drunk to be angry at the unwelcome intruder.

Hana regained her composure, she held up the invisible piece of clothing. “Well, well, well, you arrived just at the right time. Look what I found.”

Fareeha squinted at the stretched out arm of the girl. “What is it? Is it like a tiny marble in your hand or something because I can’t see shit?”

“Hah, exactly! But there is something here, you know what that means? That means-“

Angela peeked out from behind her roommate’s muscular shoulders, unable to read the situation. “Oh, you found my suit. Thanks.” She giggled.

“Your suit?!” Hana and Fareeha repeated in shock. Fareeha was the first to recover.

“I knew you simply turned it invisible and lost it!”

Angela just responded with a sheepish grin.

“Wait, that means that YOU’RE the demon?” D.VA was looking at the blonde with disbelief. “I mean I would have understood if she was the demon, “ she pointed at Fareeha, “put you’re just… just… This is going to be easier than I expected.”

Slowly the alcoholic haze began to lift in front of Fareeha’s mind. “Hana…in my apartment…middle of the night…Mercy’s suit…she knows…wait…SHE KNOWS!!!” The thoughts hit her with the force a nitro boosted rocket train. Instinctively she shoved a protesting drunk Angela behind her.

“You’re not gonna do anything.” Now there was anger in her voice.

D.VA just grinned smugly, dropping the suit, her hand slowly reaching for the back of her pants. “Oh please, as if you could do anything…” Her hand lifted the back of her shirt. Right there between her back and the band of her sweatpants was her….. She went to the toilet a little while ago. Her gun was lying in the bathroom sink. All her confidence was immediately gone. All the magic she possessed was solely for the purpose of getting her into or out of things. Her fighting skills were excellent with any kind of fire arm, but without her gun she wouldn’t last a minute against the angry muscular Egyptian woman currently in front of her. She made a decision.

“Fuck it, plan B. Parkour!” With a skilled leap she jumped out the window next to the TV.

The sound of shattering glass broke the silence of the night. It was quickly followed by the smack of a body hitting asphalt after a fall from the top floor.

“What the hell?!” Fareeha sprinted to the now open window. Angela went to the bathroom to vomit.

When the Egyptian woman looked out the window she didn’t know what to expect, but it surely wasn’t Hana standing in the middle of glass shards, completely fine, and dusting off her clothes. When she noticed she was being watched she looked up to Fareeha.

“That was kinda’ stupid wasn’t it?” Her voice carried a hint of regret, but all in all seemed unfazed by the fall.

“Yes.” Fareeha was very confused. What the ever-loving flying FUCK was going on.

“If I wouldn’t be living across from you, I’d gotten away.”

“Probably?”

“Can I come up to talk without you hurting me?”

“We’ll see.”

“That’s fair.” D.VA nodded understandingly and made her way towards the front door.

 

 

The first thing that greeted her back in Fareeha’s apartment was the owner’s fist.

“Ow, okay I deserved that.”

“You broke into my apartment.” Another hit.

“Still fair.”

“You broke my window.” The next hit threw Hana to the floor.

“You done yet?”

Fareeha squatted down close to Hana’s face. “And most importantly you threatened my… my…”

“Demon?” All of the air in D.VA’s lungs left her body after a swift kick in rips by Fareeha. One could feel the ten years of soccer she played.

“Don’t call her that.”

“Are you finally finished?”

“Yes. Get up. Talk.” The venom was dripping from Fareeha’s voice.

Hana slowly got up, no visible injuries on her body, but the residual pain from hits she just had taken was still written on her face.

“I’m a trans-dimensional killer who’s-“

“I figured that it wasn’t a joke.”

The sounds of violent vomiting from the bathroom had finally seized, and Angela stepped out, even paler than usual. “Told you.”

Fareeha threw a quick look at her, then back to the girl in front of her. “What were you planning to do?”

“Find out why the demon Mercy wasn’t coming back with a contract or responding to any calls by the administration. If she was compromised I had the authority to eliminate her, the last thing the administration needs is a rouge demon.”

“And how were you gonna find out if she was rogue by going through our belongings?”

“The fact that you said OUR belongings and this,” she pointed at the drunk demon who was currently snuggling up to Fareeha, “seemed pretty self-evident that she no longer is trying to get you to sign a contract.”

“ ‘m working on it.” Mercy mumbled into Fareeha’s shoulder.

Hana rolled her eyes. “Obviously.”

“Hey, it isn’t my fault the transponder stone that the administration gave me stopped working about a week into the assignment.”

“What do you mean it stopped working?” Hana wore an expression of disbelief.

Mercy grabbed her necklace, tore it off, and tossed it to her. She at least tried. In her intoxicated state it hit the far wall behind D.VA.

“Nice shot.” The sarcasm was thick. The Korean girl went to retrieve the necklace. When she returned she held it up into the light.

It was a simple design. A black chain, and a crystal, Fareeha had guessed it was amber, although now against the light she could see the many fine golden fractures running through the material.

“That is weird. Normally the connection between a transponder stone and its receiver can’t be cut. It would require immense magical forces to even disrupt the signal for a short time. That the connection is fully broken, happened only…once.” Slowly the shorter girl stopped talking. “That bitch.”

She tossed the necklace back to Mercy, who got hit in the forehead by it, then she turned to leave.

Fareeha stopped her. “Wait! Where are you going?”

“I’m leaving. I have a few people to see, questions to ask, and maybe asses to put bullets into.”

“But I still have questions.”

Hana looked annoyed. “I only have time for one more question, it better be good.”

Fareeha threw a pleading look to her roommate, but she was far more occupied with rubbing the spot where the transponder stone hit her. She sighed.

“Alright, how can she recharge her magic?”

Hana turned away from the door, back to the other woman. She straightened herself, then slapped Fareeha with all her might. The smack startled Angela, and Fareeha was suddenly wide awake and sober, although just for a second.

“Ow! Why?” But as soon as she had asked images started to flash before her eyes. Locations, people, rituals, things she couldn’t understand. “What did you do?”

“I transferred memories into your brain of people that can help you, and where to find them.”

“Did you have to slap me for that?”

“No.”  She turned around and left through the door, leaving the other two women in dumbfounded silence.

Fareeha was just about to say something when Hana returned once again. “Actually I forgot my gun. If I could have that back I’d be thankful.”

“I’ll get it.” Angela perked up. She came back from the bathroom with something wrapped in what seemed to be half a roll of toilet paper. “I might have vomited on it.”

A grimace formed on Hana’s face as she accepted her weapon. “Thanks.”

Without further words she left, closing the door behind her.

“Did I just dream that?”

Mercy grabbed her hand, standing closely by her side. “Nope.”

“I’m drunk as fuck but still too sober for the shit you bring with you.”

“Sorry. Thank you for standing up for me.” She placed her head on Fareeha’s shoulder.

“Don’t worry about it. I told I’d protect you.” She placed a small kiss on the blonde’s head. “Come on, I think that was enough action for one day, let’s go to bed.”

“Only if we cuddle.” Angela voice left no room for discussion.

Fareeha laughed at the drunk demon, but smiled. “Of course.”


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi, I'd say I'm back, but this story doesn't have a fixed schedule, so I'm just  
> sorry for taking so long.

“Yo, what happened to your window?” It was the first thing Lena said after entering the living room, holding two bags filled to the brim with Chinese take-out boxes, or as the Brit likes to call it, the best hangover cure.

“There was a bee.” Fareeha deadpanned as she started to clean off the dining table.

Lena made an impressed face. “Must have been one hell of a bee.”

“You wouldn’t believe it.”

“Don’t you mean BEE-lieve?”

“Shut up or I’ll kick you in the ribs.”

“Somebody’s in a great mood today.” Lena laughed as she put the bags down on the kitchen counter, and started to pull out bowls and chopsticks for three of them from the cupboard. “So how’s Angie? Is she still dead from yesterday?”

Fareeha just smirked. “Give me a sec’.” She turned her head towards the closed bedroom door. “Breakfast!”

A silent _THUD_ could be heard, then the sound of shuffling feet on the wooden floor. With a slow and, for all three currently still hungover students, painfully loud creak the bedroom door started to open.

Angela had to blink heavily for her eyes to adjust to the bright light of the already late afternoon sun. Her usually tied up hair was a wild mess, the dark bags under her eyes in combination with her now even paler skin were giving her an almost corpse-like look, and when she tried to speak her voice sounded hoarse and weak.

“I’ll be right there.” Without another word she slowly dragged herself into the bathroom, not even bothering to turn on the light.

“Wow,” Lena stood still for a second, “You most definitely weren’t exaggerating when you said she isn’t a morning person.”

Fareeha put the last few dirty dishes from yesterday into the dishwasher, then she turned to Lena. “Don’t act like all of your drinking games from yesterday didn’t play a part in this.”

“What? C’mon everybody had bad luck yesterday. You should have seen Lúcio this morning. The poor dude barely made it to the toilet.” An almost nostalgic look passed Lena’s face when she recalled her vomiting friend, cursing all the gods he knew while emptying his stomach into the toilet. “Ah, but t’was fun wasn’t it?”

“Yeah…fun.” The two women jumped when Angela suddenly stood next to them, looking a little better than before, but only by a sliver. She gave the two of them a tired smile, eyes still not fully open, then made her way towards the faucet in the kitchen.

“Mornin’ Angie, how are you feeling?” The Brit raised an asking eyebrow.

“Guess.” Was all the demon responded before bending over and starting what looked like an attempt to chug the entire tap water reserve of the town. After two full minutes of continuous drinking Angela straighten herself again, and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. “I heard something about breakfast.”

“More like late-lunch or early-dinner, but hey, food is food.” Fareeha said as she pointed towards the set table.

 

The three women barley spoke while eating, all of them far too immersed in the task of giving their alcohol-tortured stomachs something with enough sustenance to help them recover from their weird definition of fun.

“As a medical student I should chide you for always bringing us such unhealthy food, but as your friend I have to tell you, that was some heavenly shit.” Angela stated as she finished her third bowl of Chow Mein.

Fareeha shoveled the last bits of her fried rice into her mouth, before speaking. “I can only second that, you came through in a clutch. I think the only thing left in the fridge is one slice of damp toast.”

“Aww, thank you. You can repay me by praising me a bit more.” Lena leaned back in her chair with a smug grin.

“I’d rather we start with the actual reason why you’re here.” The Egyptian got up and walked over into the living room, where she started rummaging in a drawer, ignoring Lena’s faux pout. When she returned she held an old tattered street map of Europe in her hand.

Angela and Lena quickly pushed aside their dishes and bowls, making room on the table for the map Fareeha currently was unfolding.

The fully unfolded road map was about half the size of the dining table, and seemed like it had many kilometers and years on the road behind itself. The paper was already starting to yellow at the edges, and Angela could spot a small burn hole, probably from a carelessly placed cigarette. There were several routes marked with pen, and a few towns on these routes were circled and had short notes written next to them.

Leaning back in her chair Lena surveyed the map, following one the routes with her eyes. It lead from their current location in Gibraltar, over Barcelona, Lyon, two places marked as camping locations near lakes in France, Paris, Calais, and then finally London. She looked at Fareeha. “So what exactly do you wanna change about the route? I thought it was pretty damn nice last year.”

“Well,” the Egyptian took a look at the map, the memories from last night started to flash in her mind again. Images, sounds, voices, everything Hana had given her suddenly surfaced in her mind, making her dizzy. She quickly shook her head to regain focus, then took a pen from her pocket and marked three spots on the map. “There are a few places I’d like to visit.”

Both Angela and Lena leaned over the table to see what their friend had done. The Brit was the first to speak. “Sooooo…..you wanna visit Amsterdam, Frankfurt and,” she got closer to the map so that she could read the location’s name. “Someplace in the middle of the German Black Forest? I mean, I get the cities, but seriously, why the Black Forest? Suddenly got an interest in hiking that I didn’t know about?”

Fareeha was dumbstruck. She hadn’t even thought about how to explain this to Lena. She couldn’t just say that…

“I’m a Demon, stuck in this world because my magic is running low. We were told that I can replenish it at these locations.”

Exactly, she couldn’t just say something like Angela just did, that would…be…stupid. She turned to Angela in shock, the blonde carrying a completely neutral, although still hungover, expression. Fareeha slowly and with panic in her eyes mouthed her roommate the words: WHAT. THE. FUCK.

All she got as response was a short impassive shrug of the demon’s shoulders.

Fareeha turned towards a completely wordless Lena. “She’s… She’s just joking you know?”

“No, I’m not.” Angela plainly stated.

“Come on, that’s not helping.” Fareeha was starting to get desperate.

“But it’s the truth.”

“I am very well aware that it’s the truth, but…!”

Luckily Lena interrupted before the two of them could deepen their argument any further. “Wait!” Her friends stopped talking, and looked at her. ”You’re saying you’re a demon?” A short nod from Angela. “A REAL demon?” Another nod. “So… is this like a new thing that furries thought of or something?”

Fareeha’s mouth dropped open. Angela facepalmed. Nobody of the three said anything, an awkward silence suddenly had filled the room.

“Oh. My. God.” Fareeha slowly started to get a shit-eating-grin and turned towards the blonde.

Angela started to blush profusely. “No.”

“That’s just…”

“I said no, you’re not going any further with this!” Angela couldn’t look her roommate in the eye.

“Of all the reactions she could have had...”

“Stop….please.”

“…and she calls you a furry!” Fareeha couldn’t hold it anymore and fell on the floor laughing hysterically, leaving, a deeply hurt in her pride, Angela, and, an utterly confused Lena sitting at the table.

“So,” Lena seemed to be searching hard for any words to say, “by that reaction I take it you’re not a furry?” Another roar of laughter from the currently wheezing Fareeha.

Angela hung her head in shame and answered in a tiny voice. “No. I’m a really demon.”

Lena made a face that seemed like she was really trying to believe her friend, but was failing miserably. “Alright, if you say so.”

“No, no, no, she’s telling the truth.” The Egyptian had calmed herself down somewhat, and was now kneeling on the floor, holding onto the edge of the table for support.

Lena eyed her oldest friend with suspicion. Had she lost her mind? “Suuuuure.” She looked at the moping Angela. “Listen, I did not mean to hurt your feelings or anything, and if you really believe that you’re-“

The Brit was cut off by a bright flash. Mercy was now staring at Lena with burning ire in her eyes, hair black as the night, and two horns protruding from her head. “I do not believe, I AM!”

“Meep.” That was the only sound Lena could make before blacking out from shock.

Mercy immediately dropped her demon-form. “Shit, I didn’t want to do that.”

“What did you expect to happen when you decided to do that?” Fareeha quickly got up to look after her friend.

Regret crossed Angela’s face when she answered. “She called me a furry.”

“She tried to make sense of something that in her experience is just a story.” Fareeha carefully scooped the Brit out of her chair and carried her over to the sofa. “I didn’t expect that reaction, but it most certainly is understandable that she tried to make sense of what you told her like this. Why did you tell her anyway?”

Angela had followed her into the living room with a glass of water in hand. “I thought it would be easier for the three of us in the long run. Could you imagine how she would have reacted if she had found out on her own while we’re on the road.”

Fareeha knew that the demon had a point, but she still thought that the whole thing could have been done with a bit more tact. She wanted to say something when Lena started to move again. She was just about to open her eyes when Angela poured the water she brought from the kitchen over her face. In a flash Lena was wide awake again.

“Woah, what happened? Why am I on the sofa?” With asking eyes she looked at Fareeha, who gave her an apologetic smile.

“You kind of fainted.”

“I did? Why would I…?” The Brit’s eye’s fell on Angela, and suddenly she remembered everything.

“OOOOhhhhhhh fuck no!” She jumped backwards behind the sofa. “No no no no no. No, you stay away from me.”

“Now that’s the appropriate reaction.” Angela said to Fareeha while both were calmly watching Lena come to terms with the fact that there’s a whole other part to life that she previously thought was just fairy tales, lies, and legends.

“Fuck no. You can’t really be a… but that’s not…no no no, I won’t believe…” The Brit was restlessly switching between lying on the floor in fetal position, and marching up and down in the living room while gesturing and ranting wildly.

 

“Wow, in comparison I handled it like a champ.” Fareeha noted after Lena started into the eleventh minute of her breakdown. Angela had already sat down and was currently drinking some tea while silently observing the English woman.

“Although you punched me in the face I must admit, I initially was impressed by how unbothered you were by me being a creature of the underworld.” Angela admitted before taking another sip of her hot beverage.

“Too be honest, in this economy living with a demon that even pays rent is one of the lesser problems in the world, and it’s not like you’re bad company or a hideous monster or anything like that.”

Mercy was thankful that the mug in her face was currently hiding the faint blush that Fareeha’s words had caused on her cheeks. She just wanted to say something nice in return when she noticed that Lena had stopped her flow of constant curses.

“Okay…okay,” Lena took a deep breath in an attempt to calm herself further down, “I’m done.”

“You sure?” Fareeha asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Yes. Yes, I’m sure. I just would have one more question.” Lena said looking at her best friend.

“Shoot.”

“ARE YOU FUCKING BONKERS?!! WHY THE FUCK IS SHE LIVING WITH YOU?!?! SHE’S A FUCKING DEMON!!”

Mercy put down her mug, squinting at the currently yelling woman. “Rude.”

“I need to agree with Angela, that was rude.”

Lena was this close from losing it. “I DON’T GIVE A SHIT IF IT WAS RUDE, SHE’S A DEMON.”

“So what?” Fareeha shrugged.

That response took Lena all wind out of her sails. “Excuse me? What do you mean with: so what?”

Fareeha stood up from where she was sitting next to Angela. “So what if she’s a demon. For the entire time you’ve known her, would you have suspected just once that she was a demon? The answer to that is no. She’s not some fearsome monster from the underworld. To you, to our friends, and most importantly to me, she’s not Mercy the terrible demon that came to steal the souls of the innocent, she’s Angela, the somewhat clumsy, intelligent, funny, beautiful exchange student that no one expected to fit so perfectly in our group of friends, but she did. Just because she isn’t exactly like us doesn’t mean she’s evil. Just because she isn’t exactly how you thought she’d be does not mean the past months didn’t happen, and she isn’t our friend.”

Lena’s stance relaxed. The anger and disbelief, previously written on her face, slowly dissipated. She looked at Fareeha, and Angela. When she spoke her voice was lacking all the rage and energy it previously contained, instead she now almost sounded embarrassed and meek. “I’m sorry Angela for being rude.” She looked to the ground. “But I…” She was clearly searching for words. “It was just a shock, you know?”

Angela gave her an understanding smile. “Obviously this is hard to grasp at first, but I do hope this doesn’t ruin our friendship.”

Now the Brit raised her gaze from the floor, wearing a weak grin. “Please, as if you could get rid of me with something as irrelevant as that. But I still would like to have some things explained.”

The next half hour was spent with Angela and Fareeha answering all the questions Lena had, and let me tell you, she had many questions.

 

“…and now we need to go to these places so I can replenish my magic and can get home.” Angela finished explaining.

Lena leaned over the map, looking at the three dots that had started this whole thing. “I see.” She pointed at the two dots that were grouped closer to each other. “If one of these places for your magic is in Stuttgart we could pay a visit to Uncle Reinhardt.”

“That was actually my plan, from the beginning.” Fareeha said.

Angela was lost. “Who’s Uncle Reinhardt?” , she asked Fareeha.

“He’s not really my Uncle, but he used to take care of me when I was younger. Used to work with my mother, but now he’s retired and owns a small Bed & Breakfast in Stuttgart. It’s been two years or something like that since I last saw him. I’m quite certain he will be overjoyed if we’d pay him a visit.”

“Well, that would at least take care of board and lodging while were in town, but how exactly are you two planning on finding your, you know,” Lena made some vague gestures with her hand,” magic stuff.”

“I should be able to track sources of magic when I’m close enough, and Fareeha should be able to lead us there anyway with the information she got from Hana.” Angela answered.

Lena made a thoughtful expression. “Okay, I’m alright with all of this, “she motioned towards the map and her friends, “under one condition.”

Fareeha and Angela shared a look. It was Fareeha that responded. “Sure, whatever you want.”

Lena got a wide grin on her face as she grabbed the pen that was still lying were Fareeha had left it on the map. “Perfect, my condition is that we stop for a few days in Annecy, France. I mean, it’s on the way anyways.” She marked the French town with the pen.

“Sure, but why?” Fareeha asked.

“Let that be my problem.” Lena wiggled with her eyebrows and made a knowing face.

 

 

The small red brick cathedral was located in a patch of forest, just off to the side of a stretch of German Autobahn, hidden by trees and brushes. The rain was beating heavily on the old church’s roof. Missing shingles let the summer rain drop by drop trespass into the century old building, the once colorful large church windows now had more broken panes than intact, and the heavy unhinged wooden door did little to keep the harsh wind out. From the inside the building made an even bigger impression of disrepair. The church benches had been carried away or broken long ago. Floor boards were missing because they either rotted away or were stolen to be used as firewood. An almost centimeter thick layer of dust served as a silent reminder that this place had not seen a human soul in ages.

When D.VA entered the building she could feel that something was off, to reassure herself she tightened the grip on the gun in the pocket of her oversized bomber jacket.

“Why do the veterans always have to be the weird ones?” She said to herself as she carefully stepped further into the building.

Slowly her eyes scanned the room, looking for any traces of a trap or anything out of place. Carefully she proceeded to make her way towards the altar. Her eyes fell on the large wooden cross hanging at the far wall. “Well JC, looks like it’s just you and me here. Should have known that the old-“

She was able to dodge the needle at the last second, it barely missing the back of her head and impaling itself about three centimeters deep in the wooden crotch of some peoples Lord and Savior.

“Careful who you call old.” A voice rang from somewhere beneath the roof.

D.VA quickly turned around, her pistol at the ready as she scanned the roof’s wooden support beams. There, right above the door was sitting a shadow. Slowly it stood up on the beam that from looks alone should have given in years ago, and jumped the five meters to the floor as if it were nothing. Now D.VA was able to get a better look at the other person. They were completely clad in black and dark blue, the hood and cape giving them, in the twilight of the fading rainy day, an almost ghost-like silhouette. They were carrying a long custom sniper rifle which, at the moment, was trained directly between D.VA’s eyes, but she wasn’t bothered by that all that much as there was something else that captivated her far more. It was the phantom’s mask. It was made from a smooth black-as-the-night material, no holes for eyes or breathing, it was completely featureless except for the three non-connecting turquoise glowing lines that formed an upside-down triangle where the face should have been.

“What do you want?” The phantom spoke.

“Are you the one they call Shrike?” She twitched when the other person cocked her rifle at the last word.

“Why do you want to know that?”

“I think we have a problem.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The main reasons why this took so long was I was playing too much Overwatch  
> (which is kinda ironic)


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Patch Notes Version 1.10:  
> -few fixes in Chapter 9  
> -added Chapter 10  
> -minor bug fixes  
> -improved stability

Fareeha closed her eyes, reveling in the warmth of the summer sun. They had left Barcelona by dawn, and just had passed Montpellier on their way to Annecy. Currently Angela, Lena, and she were having lunch at a picnic table at a truck stop next to the highway.

Her friends were vividly chatting away about the three days they had spent in Barcelona and what their favorite sights had been, but Fareeha was barley even listening. The last two weeks had almost felt like they had passed her in a flash. After Angela had told Lena about her true origin and how she could restore her magic, the three of them had adjusted the route accordingly and made all preparations they needed for their journey. As Pharah had expected Reinhardt could barely contain his happiness when she had called him to ask for a place to stay, and with everything done that needed to be done the day of their departure had arrived with large strides.

Angela had barely been able to sleep with this being her first chance to really experience the world outside of the town. Fareeha had smiled at her almost childish excitement when they loaded up Lena’s old VW transporter and hit the road. During the car ride she kept looking out the windows almost as if she tried to burn in every last detail she saw, and when they arrived in Barcelona it was hard for Lena and Fareeha to keep Angela from simply running off in an effort to see everything. Fareeha had to admit, she loved seeing her roommate this happy.

“What are you thinking about?” Angela’s question interrupted Fareeha’s line of thought and brought her back from her daydreaming.

“I’m sorry, what did you say?” Fareeha had been so lost in thought that she had completely missed what her friend had said.

Angela, who was sitting across from Pharah, leaned forward on the table and gave her a smile, “I asked you what you were thinking about. Somewhere halfway through lunch you went quiet and kept looking at me; smiling. If I wouldn’t like the way your face looks so much, I’d almost call it creepy. You didn’t even notice when Lena went to the toilet.”

Fareeha blushed and looked around. Angela was right, Lena was nowhere to be seen and their lunch was already gone. “M’sorry.” Fareeha mumbled. “I was just letting my mind wander; thinking about our next steps.”

Mercy booped her on the nose with her finger, laughing softly. “Come on, everything will play out just fine. Relax.”

“You’re right.” Fareeha said with a smile as she stood up and started to pack up their trash. “I should stop worrying about what could be, and concentrate on what is.”

“Now that’s the Pharah I know!” Lena said with a wide grin. “Or are you gonna go weird on us again, like you did while we were eating?”

“Weird? I was just thinking.” She responded to the Brit.

“Yeah and it’s weird when you do that luv, it barely happens.” Lena joked.

“I still have better grades than you.” Fareeha smirked.

With a roll of her eyes Lena responded, “That’s like saying you can run faster than a dead man, that doesn’t count.”

Angela put a hand on each of their shoulders when the three of them finally reached Lena’s bright orange excuse for a car. “As much as I’d love to hear you two bicker for the rest of the day, how about we continue our journey?”

“I think that sounds like a wonderful idea.” Fareeha said as she made her to the driver’s side.

“Wait a second, why should you get to drive Slipstream, you already drove today.” Lena gave a small huff.

Fareeha rolled her eyes. “You called your car Slipstream.”

“Yeah, and?”

“And nothing, that’s reason enough.” Fareeha opened the door and placed herself behind the wheel.

Lena turned to Angela, who was currently climbing into the back seat. “Can you believe this?”

“I mean… she has a point.”

“Aw come on, not you too.” The Brit grumbled as she placed herself in the passenger seat.

 

 

They arrived in Annecy by late-afternoon, the summer sun already slowly starting its descent, drowning the French town in strong yellows and shades of orange. As they made their way along the side of the Lac d’Annecy Angela tried to take in as much of the view as she could, while Fareeha gave her best to navigate them to the small apartment they would be staying in for the next few days. After driving through the same roundabout for the third time Fareeha gave up and parked the car next to a small lakeside park.

“Yo Tracer, you’ve been in front of your phone since we entered city limits, could you at least look up where we have to go?” Fareeha said to the Brit next to her, who currently was far too captured by said device to notice. Angela had to flick Lena’s earlobe to get her attention back to reality.

“Huh?”

“Could you look up where we have to go?” Angela spoke up from the back seat, where she had sprawled herself out as soon as the car’s engine had stopped.

“Oh yeah, sorry.” Lena blushed a little bit out of embarrassment. “Just gimme’ a sec’.”

A few quick taps on the device and the three of them were once again back on the road. Under Lena’s guidance they made their way away from the city center and slowly towards the outskirts of the city. After about 15 more minutes of driving the cityscape started to change slowly.

“You sure this is the right way?” Fareeha asked as they drove past another expensive looking mansion, the third one in the last few minutes. “It said in on the internet that the apartment was just a few walking minutes from the city center.”

“Now might not be the right time to tell you, but I might have changed our accommodations for our stay without asking first.” Lena admitted with a remorseful smile.

“Wait what?!” The car came to an abrupt halt, as Fareeha whipped around her head to face her friend. “What do you mean you changed our accommodations? Where are we staying?”

Lena simply pointed out the windshield, and when Angela and Fareeha followed the direction of her finger both of their jaws dropped.

The building Lena was pointing at was a white three story 17th century mansion, more fitted to be called a palace than a private residence. By what was visible past the heavy iron gate that was fitted into the wall surrounding the property, the building stood upon a small hill with a long avenue leading up to it, and an assortment of flower beds and decorative ponds doting the extensive front lawn.

“First of all, how the fuck?” The last time Fareeha was this lost for words was when Zarya demonstrated how she could squash a pumpkin between her thighs with ease.

“I’ll explain everything in due time, just let me ring the doorbell first, so that we don’t have to sit out here like a bunch of idiots.” With those words Lena jumped out the car and walked up to the gate. After a bit of searching she found the, for a house of these proportions far too ordinary, doorbell and rang it without hesitation.

For a few seconds nothing happened, and the only sounds to be heard were the distant waves of the lake and the chirping of the birds, then, with the low hum of an electrical engine, the gate started to open.

“See? Everything according to plan.” Lena said as she hopped back into her seat, motioning her friend to drive onto the property. Slowly the orange transporter made its way up the avenue, looking ridiculously out of place in its surroundings. None of the friends spoke a word as they arrived at the front door, the car noisily stopping on the gravel of the driveway.

Angela was about to ask if Lena knew the king of France personally or something, but before she could speak the house’s front door opened and a person stepped out into the warm afternoon air. Angela tried to get a good look at them.

“Wait a second, is that-” But Lena was already out of the car.

“Amélie!” The Brit jumped into the taller woman’s arms almost knocking her over in the process.

Meanwhile, inside the car it finally made click with Angela and Fareeha as they figured out what was going on. Fareeha was the first to speak.

“She’s using this road trip for a booty call!” Her voice sounding more surprised than angry.

“We’re using this road trip to perform an ancient pagan ritual that restores the magic powers of a demon, I think this is just fair.” Angela stated as she looked at the two smiling women standing in the front door.

Fareeha sighed, then started to get out of the car. “You’re right. Come on, let’s say hello to our gracious host.”

Amélie let go of Lena when the other two women got out of the car and began to approach them.

“Bonsoir.” The French woman closed the last few steps between them and politely shook Fareeha’s and Angela’s hands. “Welcome to Annecy.”

Fareeha gave her best to not look too surprised by the circumstances. “Thank you, and thank you so much for letting us stay here.”

“Please don’t, friends of Lena are friends of mine. And I’m currently alone here anyways, as my parents are in the States and our staff currently is on vacation. So I don’t mind the distraction.” Although Amélie’s voice did not betray any of her thoughts, the most definitely not innocent glance she shot Tracer spoke volumes.

“Oh, where are my manners. Please bring your luggage inside, no need for you to stand around out here.” She continued speaking as she turned around to walk back inside, motioning for them to follow.

Each of the three friends quickly grabbed their bags from the car, not wanting to waste a single second to explore the luxurious mansion, and hastily made their way inside. The first room they entered was a large entrance hall with three doors, one opposite of the entrance and one on the left and right. There was also a large staircase on the left wall leading up to the first floor. The décor in the room was tasteful and expensive. The walls were adorned with purple and blue tapestries, painted portraits, and Fareeha could even spot one or two mirrors with silver and golden frames.

After simply dropping their bags at the bottom of the stairs, and taking off their shoes, Amélie led them though the door left of the entrance into a large living room. In the center of the room was a couch large enough to probably sit 15 to 20 people comfortably. On the wall opposite the sofa hung a 160 inch flat screen TV. On the far side of the room was the kitchen, or as Amélie stated, the only one of three that was stocked at the moment, only separated from the rest of the room by a waste-high counter with a bowl of fruit on top.

Amélie still lead them further into the house until, after passing a few more corridors and rooms and explaining their uses, they finally reached the back porch. As they passed through the glass sliding doors that separated them from the back yard Angela, Fareeha, and Lena were at a loss for words. The pool of the Lacroix estate was about the size of an Olympic pool, had what seemed to be an artificial grotto and waterfall, and in the waning light of the day, was lit by countless small underwater lights. On the natural stone porch were several beach chairs, a large wooden table next to a grill, and a fire pit with a circle of outdoor couches around it.

“As there is no one else around please make yourself at home.”

Tracer let out a long whistle before speaking. “I knew your parents were loaded, but this…” she gestured around her, “this is amazing.” She pressed a light kiss on her girlfriend’s cheek. “Now why don’t you show us our rooms, and then we could…”

Fareeha couldn’t understand what Lena whispered into Amélie’s ear, but through the French woman’s bright blush she could get the gist of it. When Amélie had regained her composure, she motioned them to follow her again.

Fareeha’s and Angela’s room was on the first floor facing the pool. It had two king-sized beds, a bathroom as big as Fareeha’s apartment, and a balcony with an entire small apple tree on it. The room was elegantly decorated, and the floor-to-ceiling windows stood slightly open to let the summer evening breeze in.

“You already know where the kitchen is, so feel free to help yourself to anything that’s in there.” Amélie explained as she waited in the doorway of their room, Lena standing by her side, both obviously impatiently waiting to have some time in private.

Fareeha picked up on that. She glanced around one last time to make sure they had everything they needed for the night, then said, “Thanks again for being such an amazing host; we should be fine for now.”

At those words Amélie smiled and grabbed Tracer’s hand. “Well then, see you at breakfast, bonne nuit.” The French woman closed the door and Angela and Fareeha were alone.

When she heard another door further down the corridor close Fareeha let herself fall on one of the beds with an exhausted sigh. For a second she just laid there starring at the ceiling, when the sound of the balcony door being opened grabbed her attention. Apparently Angela had walked outside and was now overlooking the pool, and with the amazing position the house was in, also the entirety of Annecy. Slowly the Egyptian got up again, following the demon outside into the warm evening air.

“It’s beautiful, isn’t it?” Angela said without turning around.

Not taking her eyes of the blonde who was now framed by the last rays of the sunset, giving her an almost angelic glow, Fareeha answered. “It sure is.”

Mercy’s view lowered from the city in the distance down to the pool, she then turned around she wore one of her trademark smiles, the kind that made Fareeha’s knees feel like pudding. “Wanna go for a swim? I mean we brought our bathing suits, and the pool right there,” she motioned towards the water. “Would be a shame not to use it.”

Fareeha had to admit, a few calm laps in the pool sounded pretty heavenly, especially after sitting in a car for most of the day. “Sure, why not.”

“Perfect.” Angela smiled and clasped her hands together. “Let’s get dressed then.”

The demon had already lost her pants before she was back inside. Pharah, as a woman of class, obviously did not stare (okay, maybe she stared a little bit, but not too obvious).

By the time Fareeha was in her bathing trunks Angela stepped out of the bathroom with two towels. She threw both of them at her roommate.

“Want to see something cool?” She spoke the words in passing, as she made her way back to the balcony.

“Wait, what are you doing?” Fareeha quickly followed her outside as the white bikini clad woman climbed on the railing.

“Isn’t it obvious? I’m gonna jump into the pool.” The demon spoke as if this was something really obvious.

Fareeha looked over the railing. They were about six meters up, and about another seven meters from the water. “Are you crazy? That’s an impossible jump!”

But Mercy was already in the air. With one mighty leap did she not only clear the distance to the water, she even got to the dead center of the pool. When the blonde resurfaced she laughed. “I wouldn’t suggest you try that, but you should most definitely come in; the water is perfect!”

With haste Fareeha made her way downstairs, nearly tripping over her own feet a couple of times. When she finally stepped outside Angela was nowhere to be found.

“Holy shit, they’ve got a cocktail bar in here!” The demon’s voice sounded from the artificial grotto at the other end of the pool.

Fareeha chuckled and shook her head as she threw the towels on one of the beach chairs. She then dove headfirst into the refreshing water, and crossed the entire pool with powerful strokes.

 

The only light source in the grotto were thousands of tiny LEDs in the artificial rock ceiling and some soft blue and green lamps hidden somewhere for indirect lighting. Angela currently was looking through the contents of the fridge and shelves inside the grotto. She was just about to inspect one of the vodka bottles a bit closer when a hand grabbed her ankle and pulled her underwater. She shrieked out of surprise before being submerged.

“You’re an asshole.” She laughed and playfully hit Fareeha in the shoulder when the two of them surfaced again.

“That was revenge for scaring back there.”

“Please, just because I don’t have any magic doesn’t mean I’m a full-on human.”

Fareeha wanted to give a snarky response but her words got caught in her throat. She hadn’t realized how close they had gotten to each other after they had reemerged from underwater. It was just the two of them in the privacy of the grotto; all sounds from the outside world dimmed through the thick fake rocks that sheltered them. Fareeha’s eyes slowly wandered to Angela’s lips; the world seemingly standing still; the only sounds being the gently splashing of the water and their breathing.

Whatever it was Angela had noticed it too, both of them too afraid to move, in fear of ruining the moment. Those bright blue eyes expectantly looking up at Fareeha, who in this moment gathered all of her courage and gently closed the gap between their mouths.

The first contact was soft, simply testing the waters, but when she wanted to pull back again, Angela had other plans. The second kiss was far more energetic; far hungrier. The blonde pulled the taller woman back on one of the benches in the grotto, the water reaching up to below their breasts.

Fareeha was now sitting in Mercy’s lap both of them excitedly exploring each other’s mouths with their tongues, roaming their bodies with their hands.

When Angela pulled away for air she placed her forehead on Fareeha’s. When she spoke it was nothing more than a breathless whisper. “Why did it take you so long to kiss me again? I missed it.”

Fareeha placed a soft kiss on the other woman’s hairline and then started to move down, placing many small kisses along the way, she was just about to reach the demon’s mouth when she answered. “I was afraid.”

“Of what?” Angela pulled away, gently placing her hands behind Fareeha’s head. “Of me?”

The taller woman smiled, slowly letting her hands sink below the water’s surface, trailing every inch and curve of Angela’s body. “No, I was afraid of falling in love with you and then losing you.”

Angela gasped when one of Fareeha’s hands brushed against the sensitive skin of her inner thigh, but she was determined to get her answers. “What changed?”

“It’s better to have loved and lost, than to live with regrets and what-ifs for the rest of your life.” She moved closer, pressed her body flat against Angela’s and smirked with lust in her eyes. “Happy with that answer?”

All she got as a response was the demon pulling her in for a deep kiss.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *me, several weeks ago: "People liked chapter 9, I should see that I get the next chapter done as fast as possible."  
> *me, last week, tearing my eyes away from Persona 5 and Skyrim: "what?"
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
> Anyways, don't forget to leave a kudos and comments to show me I'm not simply throwing this into the void, and have a great day!


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm back...or actually never left. I'm still planning on finishing this.

Before she had come to this world Mercy never had had a dream in her life. In fact, before she had set foot into this world for the first time she had never even slept, but then…then something had changed. Fareeha’s refusal to sign the contract, her unexpected loss of most of her magical powers, plus the large amounts of earthly liquors on that day, had caused her to fall asleep, even if it was partially against her will.

She would never admit it, but in the beginning she had been afraid of the darkness. Unseeing she had been floating through the void, spinning without any sense of orientation, and yet, there had been this uncertain feeling of direction. Although without sight she had moved towards an unseen warmth, a safe haven in the everlasting dark. She didn’t known how long the journey had taken her, an hour or a millennium, but when she had arrived at the source of this all-piercing warmth, now burning with the strength of an invisible sun, she had felt at home, safe, no longer alone in the dark. And slowly, the longer she stayed with this source of pleasant heat, the more and more she began to see in the void. At first, it was just one single blue feather of a bird she didn’t know, then the feather began to leave a shimmering golden streak, moved by a wind that wasn’t there. She had been about to reach for that feather when her first dream ever had been rudely interrupted by her being thrown of a couch.

Now she was back in the void. The sun, HER sun, once again reassuring her that she wasn’t alone in this world. Looking around she sure enough found the feather again which she saw during her first visit, the golden trail gracefully drawing patterns in the darkness. She was contempt to simply watch it form its path through the nothingness, when suddenly another feather joined this graceful dance. This feather was different than the first one. Where the blue feather had a certain grace to its movement, this one seemed to struggle with keeping aloft in the dark, instead of a powerful royal blue this feather seemed black, charred, still with a slight glimmer of fire on its edges. Seeing the charred feather struggling to keep up with the majestic performance of the blue one hurt Mercy’s heart.

The two feathers continued to circle each other, and whenever the blue one got too close to the charred one, the burning edges would flare up and drive the other feather away. This went on and on, in an almost hypnotic fashion, no matter how much the black feather struggled to keep up with the blue one, it would always flare up and drive it away if it came to close.

Mercy began to feel heavy, the display in front of her seemingly sapping away the calming heat that had surrounded her, the void once again growing colder and colder. It was a change that also seemed to affect the feathers and their dance. The charred feather seemingly having given up, was now slowly drifting downwards void of all pervious life. When it came to rest at Mercy’s feet the embers at its edges gave their final glimmer and disappeared. Absentmindedly she picked up the feather inspecting its fragile charred remains. She was about to put the feather down when the blue one appeared right before her face, curiously floating in midair. It appeared to give of the same kind of pleasant heat that had lead her here in the first place, accompanied by a slight calming humming.

When Mercy tried to touch the elegant blue feather it suddenly shot away, circling her a few times, leaving a vibrant golden trail before flying straight into the charred feather, which flared up with a bright light, brighter than anything the demon had ever experienced in her life.

 

Angela was awoken by the chirping of the birds just outside of their window of their room in the Lacroix mansion. The sounds made their way through the large open balcony doors, accompanied by the smells of an early summer day. The details of her dream already forgotten she pondered if she should get up or go back to sleep. The sound of soft snoring tore her away from this difficult debate inside her head. There right beneath her laid Fareeha, still sleeping peacefully, every calm and deep breath slightly tussling Angela’s hair, who apparently had used Fareeha’s chest as a very comfortable and warm pillow. An involuntary smile ghosted over Angela’s lips as she looked at the sleeping form under her. Angela had been lost in Fareeha’s resting features for about a minute when there was a knock on the door, followed by a British accent.

“Anyone in there alive and in the mood for breakfast?”

“What do you say, does that sound good?” Angela turned her head from the door to the now slowly blinking Fareeha.

“Now that you’re awake, it sounds perfect.”

“We’ll be down in five.” She answered the Brit.

“Neat-o, see ya.” The words we’re followed by the sound of bare feet sprinting down the corridor, towards the stars.

“You can do a lot of things in five minutes.” Mercy suggested with a devilish grin. “So?”

“I’m gonna take a shower to get all the chlorine out of my hair.” With that Fareeha got up, leaving a slightly disappointed Angela behind in bed. When she reached the doorway to the bathroom Fareeha turned to the pouting demon. “Are you gonna join me?”

Mercy crossed the distance in record time.

 

 

Amélie was currently making scrambled eggs and cutting fruits and cheese for breakfast while Lena was setting the table by the pool when Angela and Fareeha came into the kitchen, both of them with still wet hair and towels around their necks. The standard good-mornings were exchanged and with the four of them all up and about the preparations for breakfast were quickly finished. Before anyone could even complain the table was decked with fruits and cheeses from the region, bread fresh from the bakery down the street, hams and eggs from local farmers, all in all it was an amazing sight.

When the four women sat down at the wooden table by the poolside, sheltered from the morning sun by a large umbrella, Lena was the first to speak.

“Neat, alcohol.” Already reaching for the ice-cooled sparkling wine.

“Lena it’s 10 am, don’t you think it’s a bit early to drink?” Angela asked with a raised eyebrow.

The Brit only laughed as she poured herself a glass. “C’mon, it’s France.”

“I mean, you’re not planning on driving anywhere anyways, or?” Amélie said, filling up her own glass.

“No, I just thought we could check out the lake or something, not just sit around and drink. And how I know us,” a quick side-glance at Lena who was trying to low-key fill up Fareeha’s glass, “getting there after maybe the next two hours will be difficult.”

“If you want to check out the lake, let me make a few call and relax, I’ll handle…”

“Thanks,” Angela interrupted Amélie as she already was pouring herself a glass of sparkling wine.

 

When Amélie returned from her phone calls, the other three were already vividly talking, eating, and drinking. She quietly put some food on her plate, occasionally meeting Lena’s glance and smiling.

“Soooo,” Fareeha had picked up on that, she had also notices the bite mark on Amélie’s neck, “Lena, you must have been reeeeally tired yesterday, judging by how fast you went to bed." Her sly grin showing that that was not what she meant, Lena’s blush showing that she knew that that was not what she meant.

Lena tried to stutter out a snarky come back, but ultimately it was her girlfriend that came to her rescue, “I see you enjoyed the pool in our absence.”

Both Angela and Fareeha followed her gaze towards the water. Angela froze and turned as red as a tomato. Fareeha muttered a silent oops. There, in the middle of the pool, floated the bottom half of Angela’s swimsuit.

Triumphantly Amélie stood up, “Check and mate. The car will be here in three hours, and if you don’t mind I’ll be getting myself another bottle of this, “she shook the now empty bottle of sparkling wine. “Maybe two.” She went inside and left the three friends in an awkward stunned silence.

“#roasted”

Fareeha laughed. “Shut up, Lena.”

 

 

“Of course you’d have a boat. Why did I ever even think you wouldn’t have a boat?” Lena was gesturing drunkenly at the elegant vessel in the water. The speedboat’s deck was made of luxurious dark wood, and if the golden decorations would not have been crafted and worked into the overall design so perfectly, one could have almost called it gaudy. It swayed gently from side to side as the waves rhythmically hit its pristine hull.

“This is just the one we use for the lake,” Amélie explained as she climbed from the private dock on to the boat, “our yacht currently lies in Monaco.” Her voice nonchalant, as if it would be the most normal thing in the world.

“Well then I know where we go next year!” Lena yelled excitedly as she jumped from the dock straight to one of the white leather seats. “This is amazing, you’re practically a Bond villain.”

“Yeah, all you need now is a castle on an island, and you’d be set for a fight with a British agent.” Fareeha had been the next to board their boat and was currently helping Angela onto it.

“It’s not a castle per se,” Amélie spoke as she was maneuvering the boat out of the town’s small harbor and away from the coast, “it’s more like a mansion.”

The three friends saw where Amélie was driving them to. At first Angela had thought it was just a large rock, jutting out of the water in the middle of the lake, but the closer they got the more details she could spot. Towers and widows became more and more visible with every meter they approached, with balconies, and trees decorating the outside. What this mansion lacked in size compared to the Lacroix estate, it most definitely made up with atmosphere.

Fareeha, Angela, and Lena were stunned silent with awe, and only were rid out of their trance when the boat gently bumped into the dock.

“Bienvenue au Château Guillard,” the French woman said as she tied the boat to the pier. “It belongs to my mother’s side of the family.” She motioned for the other three women to follow her up the many stone steps that lead to the main entrance. “She doesn’t really have any use for it, so she overwrote the ownership to me. I usually live here when my parents are home.”

When they entered the foyer Amélie turned around to them, “If you follow the hallway down that way, you’ll come to a door and a stairway that leads to the the bathing spot, you can’t miss it.” She then directly faced Lena. “Please don’t die on the diving board.”

“YOUHAVEADIVINGBOARDYOURETHEBESTILOVEYOU?!?!!?” Lena was already sprinting down the hall, flinging every article of clothing that wasn’t bathing suit off of her.

“I better go and keep an eye out for her.” Angela sighed, then she gave Fareeha a small kiss on the cheek, and tried to somehow catch up to her speedy friend.

“I’ll be right there!” Fareeha yelled after her. “Hey, Amélie, could you really quick tell me where the toilets are?”

“The closest one’s are up the stairs, to the right, down the hall, and then left. If you return before me, please tell Lena that I’ll be joining you shortly.” She then left through a door seemingly leading to the cellar.

When the door fell shut behind the other woman Fareeha nodded to herself and made her way up the stairs, towards the restroom. She was about halfway down the hall, when she suddenly felt another presence in the area, but when she turned around she found the hallway empty, the only sounds being Lena’s distant laughter at the joys of a private diving board, and the sound of the waves clashing against the rock below. Although there was barely a cloud in the sky and the wide hallway was flooded with sunlight Fareeha felt a cold chill run over her spine.

She quickly shook her head to get rid of the feeling, probably just a symptom of the great group decision to day-drink, but as soon she started walking she could swear she could hear a second pair of footsteps right behind her. In her drunken state she decided she was having none of that, and started sprinting towards the room she suspected the restroom to be in. With almost superhuman speed she jumped into the room and slammed the door shut, only to find herself in absolute darkness.

“Hola, how’s it go-“

“Not today Casper!” Fareeha punched the source voice out of pure instinct, but immediately recoiled with regret when the supposed ghost hit the floor like a sack of potatoes.

“That didn’t sound like a ghost.” The woman thought and immediately started to search the dark for a light switch.

“I-it’s left from the door.” A female voice groaned from the floor. The tip was followed by a barely whispered curse.

As soon as the switch was flipped Fareeha saw what, or better said who, she hit.

“Sombra?” She immediately went to help the woman up. “What the fuck are you doing here?”

“As I want you to think I’m cool, I’m gonna say smoke weed, instead of hunting ghosts.” Sombra gladly accepted Fareeha’s hand as she got herself back on her feet. “You got a mean right hook, let me tell you.”

“Yeah, sorry about that.” Fareeha stated remorsefully. “Did you say you were hunting ghosts?” She was now looking around in what apparently once was a ballroom, but was now filled to the brim with tables pile-high stocked with all kinds of electronic knick-knacks and machinery. The heavy fabric curtains were drawn shut to keep out the bright summer sun, and she was sure she could smell incense.

“N-no, no, obviously not, as I said I was, as the kids like to say these days, blazing it up.”

“I don’t smell any weed.”

Sombra sagged her shoulders. “Alright, I was hunting ghosts.”

“Any luck?”

“Not really.”

“Angela and Lena are also here, you could come downstairs and join us.”

At that Sombra straightened herself a little bit. “You sure?”

“Come on it’ll be fun.”

“Okay, but I’ll need to grab some ice first, because SOMEONE punched me in the face.” She laughed a little as the two of them made their way to the door.

“Who hunts ghosts in a dark room?” Fareeha argued as she left the ballroom.

“Ever saw a ghost that liked the light?” Sombra responded with a cheeky grin, turning off the light behind her. Fareeha wasn’t sure, but for a fraction of a second it was almost as if she could see two figures moving in the dark, it almost looked like as if they were dancing, then the door fell shut, and she just chalked it up to her imagination plus intoxication.

 

“Look who I found!” Fareeha exclaimed, as Sombra and she made their way down the stone steps to the bathing area. The bathing area was a tiled terrace at the lowest point of the island, about two meters above the water level, with a ladder leading into the lake, and a diving board installed to the far end.

The three women currently lying on canvas chairs under a giant parasol looked at their friends coming down the stairs.

Amélie spoke with the straw of her Margarita still in her mouth. “Sombra, I’ve been looking for you.”

“Ah yes, and in your valiant search through the cocktail bar you had to admit defeat and give in to your alcoholic vices, am I right?” The Mexican teased the French woman as she let herself fall into another chair.

“Sumthinlikethat.” Amélie mumbled.

“So, what are you doing here?” Angela asked, propping herself on her elbows.

 “Smoking weed and popping pussy, the full-on baller lifestyle.”

“The nerd’s hunting ghosts.” Fareeha nonchalantly corrected. Sombra’s shoulders visibly dropped.

“C’mon everybody knows ghosts aren’t real,” Lena joined the conversation, “right Angie?”

Angela only gave Lena an awkward look as she shook her head, but before the shocked Brit could say something Sombra spoke, “Of course ghosts are real and one of them tried to suck my dick once!”

The few seconds of stunned silence were followed by everybody breaking out into hysterical laughter.

 

The rest of the day was spent with swimming, laying in the sun, having a NERF war through the entire mansion, more drinking, and many many shenanigans. By the time the sun started to sink behind the mountains Fareeha, Angela, Lena, and Amélie said their good-byes to Sombra and rode the boat back to the shore. The boat ride and following drive back to the estate were spent in a comfortable and welcome silence.

As the car that Amélie had organized to return them to her home slowly made its way through the windy streets towards the Lacroix estate, Angela began to let her mind wander while staring out the window.

Tomorrow they would reach the Black Forest, one of the locations D.VA had disclosed to them, and if she was being honest with herself, she was a little scared. She didn’t know what they would find, or if they even could perform the ritual. She also didn’t know what that meant for her and-

A small squeeze on her hand tore her from her thoughts.

“Huh?”

“We’re here.” Fareeha said, as she was already unbuckling herself and opening the door.

 Angela quickly shook her head to clear her mind, and the followed after her… well, they kinda were girlfriends now. That was something she hadn’t even thought about. Great, now she had another thing to worry ab – all of her panic turned to goo when Fareeha took her hand, and lead her into the house.

“You must be really wiped after today. Wanna head to bed early?” Fareeha asked like she would ask any of her friends, but Angela knew what she was trying to ask, she saw the anticipation in the other woman’s eyes, and if she was being honest with herself, she was feeling it too.

“I’d love too.” She gave Fareeha a smile. As the two made their way up the stairs Mercy wasn’t thinking about anything anymore, she just knew. She knew that no matter what happens tomorrow, she would never want to let this go.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry that this one took a while, kind of moved from one country to another. I struggled a bit with this chapter, but next stop: the Black Forest and a Pagan Ritual
> 
>  
> 
> As always, tell me when you find a mistake so I can correct it.

**Author's Note:**

> My first try at writing a fanfiction. If you find mistakes please notice me and I'll fix them.


End file.
